Nicole Richie and Joel Madden may have put plans for a happy little family on the fast track.

TMZ is passing along a rumor that Richie is "shopping around for a wedding dress … asking stylists for help."

E Online is citing an unnamed Richie close friend who confirmed that the star of The Simple Life is, indeed, pregnant.

Terrific timing, too. If she can just find the perfect dress and get this wrapped up before her July 11 trial date, perhaps she’ll petition for spousal conjugal visits.

Maybe Paris Hilton is helping out by scouting Hawaii locales for a quickie, post-clink honeymoon.

As the hot potato that is the first post-pokey interview with Paris Hilton was tossed around, Barbara Walters deemed it unworthy, a potentially bad PR move and opted to decline the opportunity, allowing CNN to swoop in.

According to Cindy Adams, Walters had this to say about the jostling.

"Look, I’ve done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez Brothers were really important news stories," said the First Lady of the Soundbites.

"This wasn’t. And even though I’d already written my questions, when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard. It . . . felt . . . sort of . . .

Tawdry. The whole thing somehow was beneath me. Besides, it was a no-win. If I did a tough piece and her tears started to flow, it would be, ‘Oh, there’s Barbara Walters making people cry again.’ Too soft, and I’d be criticized."

Walters reports that ABC wanted the "get" for the ratings, but that they were "classy" about it and let her decision stand. Besides, she’d already interviewed the incarcerated socialite on the phone and been the first to report that Paris Hilton has "changed."

All this while Paris Hilton, the new voice for the disenfranchised, was (again) waxing altruistic and public-service minded in yet another phone interview, this time with Ryan Seacrest.

Beyond the thankful-for-her-pillow talk, Hilton let Seacrest in on her plans to build a facility to help end the recidivism cycle of female convicts.

E Online reports that Hilton said she hopes it will be "a place for them to go get food, clothes on their back, get them up on their feet. Especially the mothers. It’s just a really bad cycle. If we stop it now, we can make our community a better place."

All noble, but we’ll believe it when we see it.

Leopard. Spots. You know the drill.

E! posted details of Ryan Seacrest’s phone call yesterday with Paris Hilton in which she said she’s "really proud" of herself for serving out her sentence.

Note to Paris: serving your sentence wasn’t a choice.

Paris says that this experience has completely changed her and that she used to hang around with "a lot of bad people" and doesn’t want to do that any longer. (Shades of the very wise Nicole Richie’s recent realization, natch.)

Grab a box of tissues, or a barf bag, for the rest of this, depending on whether you think her incarceration was an injustice.

I saw a report about all of the fan mail.
Oh, it’s really incredible. I had no idea how many supporters I have. (I’ve gotten letters) from kids who are four years old saying this is the first letter they’ve ever written. Letters saying, "I respect you so much, I think you’re a brave woman…"

There are obviously some messages about the judge, saying that he abused his power and completely took advantage of the situation. Which I think is…I think everyone knows that.

There’s just so much support. I really don’t know what I would’ve done…

What sort of interaction do you have with the other inmates?
There are girls in all the cells. The walls are pretty thin and there are vents, so the girls next door to me talk to me through the vents and say, "Oh, my God, my kid loves you," "My dad, all he wants for Father’s Day is your autograph…"

I just want to be normal when I walk down the halls. There are classrooms here because a lot of the inmates didn’t have the opportunity to go to school, so they’ll all be in there and all wave and blow kisses.

Everyone is really supportive and sweet. If I’m crying and upset, they’ll say, "Don’t cry" and "God bless you."…

How are you feeling? There are reports you’ve lost weight.
There are a lot of rumors going around that aren’t true. And I feel like people don’t have enough to talk about, but I’m the exact same way. The food is awful, but I’m eating. Someone told me about that (rumor), and it’s a lie. It’s not true at all. When I come out, people will see I’m exactly the same.

I’m just excited to start this new life. I appreciate everything now and I don’t want to…I think there’re a lot of bad people that I was around and I don’t want to surround myself with those types of people anymore.

The letters have really gotten me through this and it really warms my heart. They’ve made me cry with joy. I haven’t received one negative letter.

It really, really makes me happy that people care.

There is a lot more at E! online, if you don’t want to miss a single word uttered by Paris in anticipation of her imminent release.