Paris' travails riveted Americans to their TV screens, just as the nation was transfixed more than a decade ago by the [O.J. Simpson] murder case and obsessed by every new development. There was blanket coverage and nonstop analysis yesterday as news helicopters buzzed around above Hilton's palatial home before she emerged weeping and was put into a sheriff's car.

"It turned ugly," shrieked KNBC's Robert Kovacik on the air afterward, describing how he had somehow gotten his microphone caught on Hilton's police car and was dragged a short distance before the vehicle ran over his feet.

"Do you want an ambulance?" an LAPD officer asked Kovacik on the air as he was breathlessly describing his encounter with Hilton's police car to an MSNBC anchor.