Paris Hilton not the only one waiting for visitors

Paris Hilton Watch continued Sunday outside Twin Towers Correctional Facility as reporters waited for someone, anyone, related to Hilton to show up for visiting hours at the downtown Los Angeles facility.

Starting about 7 a.m., a dozen reporters from outlets such as Access Hollywood, People magazine, the New York Post and, well, um, the Los Angeles Times, staked out a strip of sidewalk in front of the visitors’ entrance to the jail. One reporter brought her Chihuahua, which periodically stood up and walked on its hind legs.

The media representatives traded notes and scoped out every high-end car with a bumper containing the letters “TCP” -- indicating the vehicle was a chauffeured rental -- that drove into the parking lot across the street. A TMZ.com cameraman hopped through the bushes to take pictures of a black GMC Yukon, but it turned out to lack any connection to the Hilton family.

Paris Hilton has been at Twin Towers since Friday, when she was returned to jail by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer.

She was originally sentenced to 45 days for repeatedly violating probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges from an incident last year. But Sheriff Lee Baca released her to her home with an electronic monitoring bracelet after three days because of an undisclosed medical condition.

On Saturday, Hilton said in a press release that she would not appeal the judge’s decision.

About 11 a.m., a group of community activists capitalized on the restlessness of the reporters.

Dressed in a smart gray suit, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, looked sternly into the cameras with a message for Hilton.

Now that she had experienced the stresses of incarceration firsthand, Hutchinson said, the heiress should step forward as the “poster woman” for mentally ill inmates.

“What we are asking is this: that you become an advocate, a spokesperson, the poster woman for those who are mentally challenged that have absolutely no chance of getting quality care in the L.A. County jail system,” he said.

From time to time, Hutchinson’s gaze shifted to his Mercedes, which he worried might be towed from a bail bonds parking lot across the street.

Hutchinson said he wanted to take advantage of the attention on Hilton to make a wider point about the lack of mental health services for inmates.

Hutchinson’s group tried to deliver a letter on the topic to Hilton, but was turned down by sheriff’s officials.

The mood quieted, but salvation arrived about noon in the form of a black Range Rover.

“It’s David!” reporters shouted as they ran across the street to a car driven by David Katzenberg, Nicky Hilton’s boyfriend.

Reporters and cameramen surrounded the car in front of the parking lot as Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky leaned away from the window and talked on the phone.

The reporters followed Katzenberg’s car around the parking lot, until he gave up and drove out of the lot. He pulled up to the curb in front of the visitors’ entrance.

Nicky Hilton, who was dressed in a short, white dress and was holding a gold handbag, darted out of the car with Stavros Niarchos, Paris Hilton’s ex-boyfriend. They refused to look directly at the television cameras as they entered the jail’s waiting area.

They bypassed a line of about 50 people and headed straight for Window 1.

As they checked in with sheriff’s deputies, people in the waiting room shouted, “What about waiting in line?” The pair then walked through a metal detector and disappeared.

Jamie Kendrick, a 20-year-old Beverly Hills resident who had been waiting for five hours to visit her brother, took up for the beleaguered celebs.

“People should leave Nicky alone,” Kendrick said. “She didn’t do anything. They shouldn’t be making her scared.”

Kendrick’s sympathy for the Hiltons didn’t stop her from pulling out her camera phone, though, and snapping a few pictures of Nicky Hilton and Niarchos. “I’m going to try to sell them,” she said.

She wasn’t the only one: Several others in line pulled out camera phones to snap pictures of the visitors.

A bail bondsman, who had purchased a digital camera the night before in anticipation of a possible new career as a photojournalist, also got into the act.

Mary Foster, a tourist from Philadelphia, came all the way to Twin Towers to take in the scene.

“I thought I’d take a picture and send it to my family back home, just for comedic value,” the 30-year-old said.

When her friend Jennifer Saber, 29, appeared after parking the car, Foster quickly caught up her friend on the day’s events.

Seeing her friend’s enthusiasm, Saber said, “We can go find Promises and visit Lindsey Lohan if you want.”

The frenzy picked up again when Nicky Hilton and Niarchos reappeared in the visiting area about 1 p.m.

Reporters shouted, “How is Paris doing?” as Nicky Hilton and Niarchos headed back to the Range Rover.

“She’s being strong,” Nicky Hilton replied, softly, as the Range Rover quickly took off.

jia-rui.chong@latimes.com