Her manager, who is very polite mind you, explains that there are to be no questions about her younger brother’s arrest, “The Hottie and the Nottie” movie flop, Paris’ own jail time, the crazy concocted report that she was banned from the Oscars or anything fun … I mean, personal.

He didn’t mention her birthday striptease in Las Vegas the week prior, but I assumed that that was off the table as well.

The good topics included: her upcoming movie, her new shoe line and, of course, her latest perfume. The new fragrance, Can Can Paris Hilton was the reason the hard-working, party-girl heiress made her visit to Macy’s at South County Center in the first place.

So, I know you’re wondering, “What was Paris Hilton really like?” We’ll who really knows. But my first reaction was that she was sweet and sparkly. Not just the glitter eyeshadow, but she seemed to have an aura of pampered, confectionery happiness, not the underlying steely glaze of a mean-spirited princess.

I asked her what designer dress she was wearing and she said that she didn’t know, “someone sent it to me.”

She made her appearance sans her usual hair extensions, but with her trademark blue contact lenses.

Now for a few notes from my notebook:

I asked if she set out to market herself as a name brand or if she just wanted to have fun. She responds first by saying that she loves animals and always wanted to be a veterinarian. She then explains that being famous was kind of thrust upon her. She was offered the first fragrance deal five years ago and numerous modeling gigs. She liked the limelight and decided to parlay that into movie and television deals, clothing and accessory lines and now a fragrance collection.

On the tabloids: “I’ve developed a tough skin over the years,” she said, but she said, she “wouldn’t necessarily want my daughter to live this life. I’d be proud if she was a lawyer.”

On the heiress life: Paris said that she has a lot of friends from prominent families and it really hinders a child when you spoil them and give them everything they want. “They don’t feel like they need to do anything,” she said. Then she commented that she was proud that her family pushed her to do more.

On the criticism: “I don’t pay attention to the haters, because they don’t know the real me.” She explained that the real Paris has a big heart, a sensitive soul and an unflappable niceness.

On her new shoe line: “Every girl loves shoes and I wanted my own line.” She said that she wanted to fill the gap of quality name brand shoes at affordable prices. Her line will range from $59 to $195.

On her new movie “Repo: the Genetic Opera!”: It’s like a better “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

On her hero, Barbie: “That was more of a joke,” Hilton said of the quote from her first book. She said that she’s always loved Barbie, but she’s not a hero because she’s plastic. But she does appreciate that she always looks good.

On her Blackberry: Ok, I didn’t really ask her any questions about her phone, but it did go off during the interview and she didn’t run over to check the message until after we were done.

On “That’s hot”: Nope, didn’t ask her about that either, but she didn’t say the phrase once during our encounter. But she did compliment my boots, which I consider a personal kudo.