Last year, Paris Hilton starred in L.A.’s Pride parade. This year, she’s planning on spending 45 days in an L.A. jail for driving with a suspended license and violating her probation on a previous traffic offense.

Should the law treat Paris any differently from anyone else? No.

But it does seem a bit strange that she will go to jail for even one day, while members of the Bush administration can admit to egregious violations of federal law (resulting in the deaths of American troops in Baghdad) with no charges filed, provided they “apologize” and “take responsibility.”

I say free Paris, and so, apparently, do others. Legal experts quoted in the Los Angeles Daily Journal criticized the judge’s sentence, saying that alternatives to jail, such as “house arrest” or even “rent a jail cell,” would be preferable.

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While Paris faces jail, gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, otherwise known as Mario Lavandeira, has his own legal problems.

Lavandeira’s Web site consists of photos of male celebrities, upon which he doodles and often superimposes the word “gay,” along with what appears to be some type of white substance dripping down the men’s chins.

X17, a paparazzi agency, filed a $7.5 million suit against Perez in federal court late last year, accusing Perez of posting photos without consent, even before the agency publishes the photos on its own Web site.

Perez claims, however, that the First Amendment protects his use of the photos because he transforms them into parodies.

It’s not likely the Federal District Court will agree, however. Merely drawing crude marks on a photo does not necessarily transform it into a parody/criticism of the photo. For instance, in 1998, a federal court ruled that Paramount Pictures parodied a photograph that celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz had shot of actress Demi Moore for the 1991 cover of Vanity Fair magazine. In the photograph, Moore was eight-months pregnant and nude. In 1993, Paramount used a similar photograph to advertise the release of its film, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. In Paramount’s photograph, however, the face of actor Leslie Nielsen appeared on top of the body of a pregnant nude model.

The court dismissed the suit against Paramount because the studio completely transformed the photo. But Perez’s doodles may not suffice, and the court could rule this year that Perez has to pay.

Also suing Perez is Universal City Studios Productions, again for copyright infringement. Perez posted a topless photo of actress Jennifer Aniston from the 2006 movie The Break-Up. This suit, again filed in Federal District Court, alleges that footage of Aniston was stolen during production of the movie. The images appeared in a French magazine (Choc) and then ended up on Perez’s site.

Perez’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, told the Daily Journal that “the use of a portion of a single photo that was previously published on numerous Web sites for the purpose of commentary and satire constitutes fair use.”

What is most amazing about this case is not the people who are suing Perez, but those who aren’t. Perez regularly “outs” celebrities or suggests they might be gay – the latest being Blake Lewis, an “American Idol” contestant. Perez even raised gay suspicions about President Bush, noting on a photo of Bush with Queen Elizabeth, “Two old queens?”

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Poor Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon and now Alec Baldwin.

The California Legislature has been in a tizzy the last few years over whether to shield “family law” records from public view.

The media wants access to family law records. But these records often reveal not only financial facts, but also highly personal matters, including the partners’ sexual peccadilloes.

And, of course, in high-profile break-ups, those facts are fodder for the tabloids, the bloggers, and, well, every news outlet.

The Alec Baldwin child custody case is another reason why the law should keep family law litigation out of public view: While celebrities are public figures, their kids are not.

Let Alec’s daughter grow up and then she can write a book called Daddy Dearest.