diff --git a/actionpack/CHANGELOG b/actionpack/CHANGELOG
index bcc258acc2..a1e487c2e1 100644
--- a/actionpack/CHANGELOG
+++ b/actionpack/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+# Allow the #simple_format text_helper to take an html_options hash for each paragraph.  #2448 [Francois Beausoleil, thechrisoshow]
+
 * Fix regression from filter refactoring where re-adding a skipped filter resulted in it being called twice.  [rick]
 
 * Refactor filters to use Active Support callbacks.  #11235 [Josh Peek]
diff --git a/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb b/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
index 3d479608f3..f8c3b67474 100644
--- a/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
+++ b/actionpack/lib/action_view/helpers/text_helper.rb
@@ -291,6 +291,8 @@ module ActionView
       # considered as a linebreak and a <tt><br /></tt> tag is appended. This
       # method does not remove the newlines from the +text+. 
       #
+      # You can pass any HTML attributes into <tt>html_options</tt>.  These 
+      # will be added to all created paragraphs.
       # ==== Examples
       #   my_text = "Here is some basic text...\n...with a line break."
       #
@@ -301,11 +303,17 @@ module ActionView
       #
       #   simple_format(more_text)
       #   # => "<p>We want to put a paragraph...</p>\n\n<p>...right there.</p>"
-      def simple_format(text)
-        content_tag 'p', text.to_s.
-          gsub(/\r\n?/, "\n").                    # \r\n and \r -> \n
-          gsub(/\n\n+/, "</p>\n\n<p>").           # 2+ newline  -> paragraph
-          gsub(/([^\n]\n)(?=[^\n])/, '\1<br />')  # 1 newline   -> br
+      #
+      #   simple_format("Look ma! A class!", :class => 'description')
+      #   # => "<p class='description'>Look ma! A class!</p>"
+      def simple_format(text, html_options={})
+        start_tag = tag('p', html_options, true)
+        text = text.to_s.dup
+        text.gsub!(/\r\n?/, "\n")                    # \r\n and \r -> \n
+        text.gsub!(/\n\n+/, "</p>\n\n#{start_tag}")  # 2+ newline  -> paragraph
+        text.gsub!(/([^\n]\n)(?=[^\n])/, '\1<br />') # 1 newline   -> br
+        text.insert 0, start_tag
+        text << "</p>"
       end
 
       # Turns all URLs and e-mail addresses into clickable links. The +link+ parameter 
diff --git a/actionpack/test/template/text_helper_test.rb b/actionpack/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
index dd5725376f..0cd83334d5 100644
--- a/actionpack/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
+++ b/actionpack/test/template/text_helper_test.rb
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ class TextHelperTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
 
     text = "A\r\n  \nB\n\n\r\n\t\nC\nD".freeze
     assert_equal "<p>A\n<br />  \n<br />B</p>\n\n<p>\t\n<br />C\n<br />D</p>", simple_format(text)
+    
+     assert_equal %q(<p class="test">This is a classy test</p>), simple_format("This is a classy test", :class => 'test')
+     assert_equal %Q(<p class="test">para 1</p>\n\n<p class="test">para 2</p>), simple_format("para 1\n\npara 2", :class => 'test')     
   end
 
   def test_truncate