Paris Hilton Busted in Hollywood For DUI

Socialite turned actress turned singer Paris Hilton was arrested early Thursday morning on a misdemeanor charge of suspicion of driving under the influence. Despite the arrest, Hilton has adamantly denied the charge.

Los Angeles police officer Robert Andreno told Reuters that Hilton was pulled over and tested for intoxication after the police witnessed her driving her Mercedes McLaren SLR erratically. "She was arrested so, yes, she failed the sobriety test." The arrest took place between 12:30am and 1am Thursday morning.

Those comments were confirmed by Officer I. Isabella in a statement made to the Associated Press. Officer Isabella said "The officers observed that Hilton exhibited the symptoms of intoxication. A field sobriety test was conducted at the scene and the officers determined she was driving under the influence."

Paris was arrested with a blood alcohol content of 0.08, the legal limit in California, according to Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz. As TMZ reports, " Nicky Hilton, her boyfriend, "Entourage" star Kevin Connolly and her publicist Elliot Mintz arrived at the Hollywood police station just before 2 AM PST. A short time later, Paris was released on her own recognizance and allowed to leave."

Hilton's ever-present publicist, Elliot Mintz, addressed the situation with the press. Mintz told Forbes that "She's absolutely fine," Mintz said. "She didn't appear in the least bit to be intoxicated." Mintz said Hilton had beeen at a charity event and had one drink, a margarita. Mintz said that Hilton had spent all day shooting her new music video and that the DUI was "probably the result of an empty stomach and working all day and being fatigued"

Later in the day, Paris Hilton came out to address the subject. Paris went on KIIS-FM and conducted an interview. Reuters quoted the Hilton hotel heiress as saying "I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day. Maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over. I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out Burger. Hilton went on to say that "I think they (the police) wanted to make a statement. They even said 'there are a lot of people watching. We don't want them to think we are giving you special treatment'."

Despite having a number of publicly embarrassing situations brought to the media's attention, this is Paris Hilton's first arrest. In 2003, a video of her having sex with Rick Soloman, her former boyfriend, was leaked onto the Internet and became a widespread phenomenon. Hilton was also the target of hackers, who managed to download the contents of her phone, including phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and post the information on the Internet. In June, Paris backed her Range Rover SUV into a parked car in a shopping mall parking garage, and sped off.

Paris Hilton, 25 year old daughter of Hilton Hotel owner Richard Hilton. Hilton made the transition from socialite to actress when her and her best friend, Nicole Ritchie, debuted in The Simple Life. She's also appeared in House of Wax, Wonderland and Raising Helen. Recently, Hilton put out her debut CD, 'Paris', on Heiress Records, her own record label. With the single "Stars are Blind" and the upcoming single "Turn It Up", the album has been relatively well-received. As for her DUI arrest, Paris Hilton said "Everything I do is blown out of proportion. It really hurts my feelings"

[Sources: Reuters, Forbes, TMZ]