When stars get out of jail

(CNN) -- On October 18, 1963, Chuck Berry -- rock 'n' roll founding father, guitar hero, "Johnny B. Goode" composer -- walked out of the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri, where he had served about 18 months on morals charges. He was met by three people: his wife, his brother and his father.

Berry was confident he could resume his career -- always a shrewd businessman, he had a ready list of contacts to call -- but he was also under no illusions that it would be easy. He had been away from the business for almost two years, and his career had come to a screeching halt.

"I started all over again," he recalled in his autobiography.

Paris Hilton likely will have it easier. Upon her release from a Los Angeles County jail early Tuesday morning, she was greeted by a line of fans, press and paparazzi. She has insisted that her 23 days in stir have prompted her to turn over a new leaf, that she's going to build a "transitional home" to help recently released inmates, that she's done with the "bad people" with which she surrounded herself.

But jail may turn out to be a dandy career move nonetheless. Nowadays, doing time can mean a fresh burst of publicity -- and, as the old Hollywood axiom goes, all publicity is good publicity. Watch the aftermath of Paris Hilton's release »

Many jailed stars are now met by a crush of paparazzi, ensuring them a blaze of exposure to jump-start their careers. Then there are the daily chronicles on celebrity gossip sites, appearances on talk shows, rich book contracts and perhaps even a reality show to chart re-entry into polite society.

The key is to be -- or at least act -- contrite, Hollywood publicist David Brokaw told The Associated Press.

"The American people don't hold a grudge if somebody genuinely says, 'I was wrong, I made mistakes, I'm sorry,' " Brokaw told the AP. "If [Hilton] says that and it's verified by what she does, then she's on her way to maybe even better acceptance and interest than ever before."

Not that forgiveness has always been available -- or resuscitated careers.

The celebrated writer Oscar Wilde, after being released in 1897 from Reading Prison (where he had done two years of hard labor for gross indecency), lived just three more years in a meager, self-imposed Paris exile.

And early Hollywood was harsh on its own -- just the whiff of scandal, never mind jail, was enough to stunt careers.

Silent comedian Fatty Arbuckle, despite being acquitted of manslaughter, had all his films banned by the censorious Hays Office. He finally found work as a director on short films. Two of his colleagues, Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand, were caught in a murder scandal involving a director; Minter's contract was terminated, and Normand, who also struggled with drug problems, never got back on track.

But other stars have suffered little or no damage to their careers, even if they've done time in the "graybar hotel."

Robert Mitchum served two months in jail on a marijuana charge in 1949; he emerged from prison with his devil-may-care image intact, if not enhanced, and remained one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

More recently, rapper Lil' Kim, who served about a year in a Philadelphia jail for conspiracy and perjury, was the subject of a highly rated BET series, "Countdown to Lockdown," and is allegedly working on a new record deal.

At the very least, jail provides plenty of time for thinking. Berry used his time to pursue his education and write "Nadine," "You Never Can Tell," "No Particular Place to Go" and "Promised Land" in Springfield. Robert Downey Jr., who served time for violating a probation related to drug charges, has said he "finally got out of his own way" after getting out of jail and rehab.

Hilton, who's a canny marketer of her image, likely will find her career continuing just fine. Whether she'll live up to her own jailhouse assertions is anybody's guess. But perhaps Berry said it best: "You never can tell." E-mail to a friend

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