NEWSNo Jail Time for Mischa?
April 8 2008, Published 7:02 a.m. ET
It seems like these days all it takes to get out of a DUI charge is a table at Villa and a whole 'lotta cash. In other words, if you're a Hollywood starlet on the up and up, chances are the law will bend for you. At least that's what it seems to be doing for the recent crop of young actresses (i.e., Lindsay, Nicole, Paris). And now, Mischa Barton.
TMZ is reporting that on Thursday, the OC alum will take a plea bargain in her DUI case and plead no contest. In exchange, her marijuana charge will be dropped and the driving without a license rap will be induced to an infraction.
So what will her punishment be, you ask? Three years of unsupervised probation, a mandatory alcohol education class — oh, and a fine.
One source says this is "fairly standard" for a first-time offender like Mischa, who was after police in West Hollywood saw her straddling lanes. Along with a DUI, she was also busted for marijuana possession and not having a driver's license. The source adds that she's "learned her lesson."
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Celebrity mugshots among the rich and under 30 are almost a dime a dozen these days, and many are not first time offenders. Lindsay Lohan managed to serve 84 minutes in an L.A. lock-up last November for charges relating to her two DUI arrests and alleged cocaine possession.
A four months' pregnant Nicole Richie made headlines last summer when she checked into L.A. county's Lynwood jail for her DUI. She was arrested in 2006 after witnesses spotted her driving her SUV the wrong way down an L.A. freeway. She was ordered to serve 90 hours. She was released after 82 minutes.
Like Lohan, this was Richie's second DUI. The pin-thin Simple Life star pled no contest to driving under the influence in 2002.
And let's not forget Paris Hilton, who after pleading no contest to an alcohol related reckless driving charge, was then caught driving on a suspended license.
She was ultimately ordered to serve 45 days in jail, only to be released, tearfully sent back and served just under a month — 24 days in the slammer — without her blue contacts or hair extensions.
