Paris Hilton (26) was in the audience at a Prince concert April 20 at Club 3121 in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas when he invited the Stars Are Blind singer to join him.

Paris agreed and joined Prince (48) onstage, when he handed her the microphone and told the audience, “Let’s see if she can really sing,” says a source.

Hilton stormed offstage, and left the club two songs later.

Prince’s rep had no comment. Hilton’s rep says, “The item is false.” Only Prince, Paris, and an audience full of people know the truth.

Prince barely spoke, and still stole the show. It was billed as a news conference about the Super Bowl entertainment lineup, featuring pre-game performers Cirque du Soleil, national anthem singer Billy Joel and Prince, the halftime-show headliner.

Typically, these events have been question-and-answer sessions.

Then again, there’s little that’s typical about Prince, the enigmatic six-time Grammy winner who once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and was best-known for racy lyrics and gyrations before toning his act down considerably in recent years.

"We are not taking questions at the end," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told a room packed with reporters and photographers, trying to give fair warning about a minute before Prince arrived, "but we think the trade-off will be pretty good."

The trade-off was a 10-minute concert with Prince and his 10-person entourage using that as their taste of what’s coming at halftime on Sunday night.

His jacket, shirt, pants and shoes were orange – surprising since he is, after all, known as "The Purple One." Shielded from view moments before taking the stage, Prince came out, took a deep breath, grabbed his guitar and sauntered to the microphone.

"Thank you," he said, after finishing the quick set. "See you at the Super Bowl. Peace."

Then he was gone. Typical Prince.

"I think he’s brilliant," Joel said. "He’s one of the most talented people in the industry today." Prince thinks so too.

A six-time Grammy winner, Joel will become the first two-time performer of the national anthem in Super Bowl history. He also sang it before the 1989 game in Miami.

Sunday’s game entertainment opens with Cirque du Soleil – touted as "a high-energy extravaganza of music, dance, gymnastics and circus arts" – pairing with well-known Miami artist, Romero Britto, for a pregame show. Grammy winner Louie Vega will provide an original musical score for the show.

Some Cirque performers were present. They were dressed as football referees and sat atop eight-foot flamingo puppets who pranced around the room.

Justin Timberlake was finally able to get back at Prince for taking a swipe at him at an Emmys party last year.

Last August, while performing at Entertainment Tonight’s Emmy Awards after party, Prince dissed the former ’NSYNCer’s new single "SexyBack," yelling to the crowd, "For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!"

But Timberlake got his revenge Monday night when he presented the Golden Globe award for best original song in a motion picture. Timberlake announced Prince had won for his rousing contribution to the Happy Feet soundtrack, Song of the Heart, but there was no stirring in the crowd.

As Timberlake stood on stage awkwardly looking around, it became increasingly clear that the purple one was not in the house.

“Well, I guess Prince couldn’t be here,” Timberlake said. Then the 6’1” singer crouched down in an attempt to emulate Prince’s 5’2” petite frame and added, “I’d like to accept this award on his behalf.” The audience erupted in laughter.

However, the "Raspberry Beret" singer didn’t seem to take offense to the jab. Later in the broadcast, when Hugh Grant informed the crowd that Prince had been stuck in L.A.’s notorious traffic, the diminutive musician stood up and took a belated bow.