Khloe Kardashian, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan (l to r) of their DUI mug pictures.
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Over the previous few months, “American Pie” star Chris Klein, “Melrose Place” alum Amy Locane, Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, “The Hills’” Jason Wahler and Stephanie Pratt, and Joyce DeWitt from “Three’s Firm” have joined the ranks of Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and soon-to-be jailbird Lindsay Lohan, who’ve been busted for exceeding the authorized blood alcohol restrict whereas driving.
So is there a rational rationalization behind this sudden surge in sloppy stars getting behind the wheel? Or is it simply that there are extra methods now in place to catch them within the act?
“There was a distinguished step up in regulation enforcement, much more folks calling in to report drunk drivers and much more DUI checkpoints,” Southern California DUI lawyer, Neil Shouse, informed Pop Tarts. “The California Freeway Patrol has additionally develop into rather more aggressive, and the LAPD has devoted much more of its federal funding to combating the incidence of drunk driving. There’s extra probability of anybody in metro LA getting caught, not simply celebrities.”
A rep from the LAPD confirmed that in recent times the California workplace of site visitors security and the nationwide freeway site visitors security administration have had a rise in funding, and have consequently carried out extra DUI and sobriety checkpoints.
Sadly, it’s most frequently these well-paid showbiz sorts who are usually not solely in a position to afford to take cabs, but in addition have bodyguards/assistants/entourages obtainable to chauffeur them. Kiefer Sutherland, for instance, who was busted again in 2007 for blowing above the authorized restrict, declined the provide of a private driver on the night time he was caught.
“Celebrities at the moment are extra more likely to drink to maybe escape the day by day public scrutiny from their followers and the media,” defined New Jersey lawyer, Darren Del Sardo. “The world is fascinated with folks of notoriety failing at one thing.”
In response to Ray Campos, DUI teacher/counselor on the East LA Alcoholism Council, extreme consumption of alcohol nearly at all times originates from childhood.
“Celebrities cannot have a social occasion with out alcohol. Alcohol abuse comes from childhood, and it may have been mother and pa, or maybe their friends, however no person was born with alcohol of their mouth,” he stated. “It is one thing you be taught, and it is a conduct, however they need to be taught to beat it.”
But these with a distinguished public profile nonetheless proceed to take the danger, realizing that it may price them their profession, their life, or the lifetime of another person. However even when they weighed the prospect of getting nabbed by officers, many are underneath the impression that their star energy is potent sufficient to negate the regulation.
“Stars usually see themselves as having a way of immunity and a really harmful false sense of safety,” Shouse famous.
It additionally appears there are some stars that take slightly pleasure of their county jail mug shot and the sudden onslaught of consideration.
“There’s a breed of younger star who, seeing the press Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan generate from their authorized issues, one way or the other believes any publicity is one way or the other good publicity,” leisure reporter Scott Huver stated.
Nonetheless, the troubled Tinseltowner on the heart of the controversy apparently isn’t at all times the one one to be thrust into the limelight.
“An arrest of a celeb appears to present the officer quarter-hour of fame. The curiosity of gaining publicity can also exceed any curiosity to guard any confidentiality the movie star might preserve,” stated Del Sardo.
Nonetheless, a rep from LAPD assured us that “celebrities are handled similar to anybody else.”
“Anybody that thinks about getting behind the wheel and driving ought to assume twice. The message is easy: do not drink and drive. That applies to everybody, not simply celebrities. Everybody, they usually’re all handled the identical,” stated the spokesperson.
Nonetheless, Campos believes that, with a number of exceptions, if one has the coveted “movie star standing” they’re certainly given preferential therapy.
“There are loads of celebrities that get caught with DUI but they do not get punished the identical was as a daily man or common girl. They’re simple on them,” Campos stated. “They need to be harder on them as a result of it may train them that being in a cell alone is a get up name.”
One factor is for certain – a DUI in 2010 can have a reasonably antagonistic affect on one’s public persona, and is now not a laughing matter, a lesson Lindsay Lohan discovered the exhausting means final Tuesday when she was slapped along with her personal get up name: 90 days in jail because the consequence of violating her phrases of probation stemming from her 2007 DUI arrests.
“There’s a good higher microscope leveled on any star that’s had a brush with the regulation, with their life and their sincerity given a lot higher scrutiny,” Huver added. “Drunk driving has additionally been taken way more significantly up to now 20 years: gone are the times when Johnny Carson gained again his viewers’s coronary heart by joking about his personal DUI.”
Extra reporting by Deidre Behar
