Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Celebrity Jail Birds

by Tina Dirmann


What's the saying? Birds of a feather flock together. Well, let's pause for a moment to check out these celebrity birds. Jail birds, that is. We have one who just got out of jail. Another who is headed to jail. And another who is sitting in the slammer right now. And in my opinion, as a long time crime and celebrity reporter, it's classic spoiled star behavior that's landed each of them in their current predicament.

Let's take them in order:

First, the one who just got out? Josh Brolin, presently in Louisiana shooting the Oliver Stone film "W," a fictional flick about the president's relationship with his father. After work, Brolin, 40, and several co-stars and crew members headed to a local bar Saturday night to blow off some steam. No problem there. Until the clock struck 2 a.m. and the rowdy bunch apparently had a problem leaving. In the end, 10 officers from the Shreveport Police Department were called in, arresting Brolin and fellow actor Jeffrey Wright (who plays Colin Powell in the film) for impeding the officers.

The actors and four others were charged with interfering with police, a misdemeanor, while another man, a lighting tech, was cuffed for resisting arrest and public intoxication. All were booked into city jail, according to a report by the Shreveport Times. Brolin and others posted $334 bond and were released.

Bratty jail bird number two? Khloe Kardashian: co-star of the E! reality show "The Kardashians," sister to the better known Kim Kardashian, and daughter to the late O. J. defense attorney Robert Kardashian. As if it wasn't bad enough that Khloe, 24, was booked March 4 on a DUI charge (registering, at the time, a .13 blood alcohol level). Afterward, she decided to blow off her probation requirements. The terms? Oh, the usual for a drunk driving offense. She had to work for Cal Trans (I'm assuming that means donning the infamous orange vest and picking up trash along the freeway). And she had to complete an alcohol education program. She did neither. Just forgot, I guess. I haven't heard, yet, a plausible explanation. Maybe because there isn't one. Oh well.

At least she's off the hook for that trash pick-up thing. Instead, on Friday, she'll begin serving 30 days in jail. Let's just hope she doesn't fair as well as Nicole Richie, who, last August, served just 82 minutes of a 4 day sentence after driving the wrong way on the freeway at 4 a.m. (while under the influence of marijuana and Vicodin, of course). Overcrowding at the jail was to blame, sheriff's officials said. Well, at least Khloe still has to enroll in alcohol education. Let's hope she learns something.

Dare to dream . . .

But the most outrageously bratty celeb jail bird behavior of them all? Nick Hogan, 17, currently serving an eight-month jail sentence in a Florida County Jail for felony reckless driving. You remember this case, right? While street racing, Nick lost control of his father's 1998 Toyota Supra, hitting a raised median and slamming the car into a palm tree. Nick's passenger and best friend, John Graziano, suffered a broken skull, lingered in a coma for several weeks, and will need life long care. Medical bills for John have already totaled more than $1 million.

Nick's sentencing was carried live on CNN.

Nick, son of wrestling super star Hulk Hogan and a regular on the family's reality show, "Hogan Knows Best," has proven himself entirely ungrateful, despite leaving the accident unscathed, and receiving a relatively light sentence. Instead, he's whined about his inability to make it in jail, pleading to serve out his time through home arrest, with an ankle bracelet. The judge said no.

In addition, he's repeatedly tried to capitalize on his time behind bars, going so far as to try to develop his own reality tv show about his jail experience. So far, thankfully, no one in Hollywood will touch the pitch.

But I can only assume Nick's tacky behavior is a family trait. After all, jail transcripts of phone conversations between Nick and his family show Hulk blaming John, the victim, for the accident. It was payback from God, Hulk told his son, because John was such a bad guy. Nick's mom, Linda, meanwhile, called John's mother "nasty," according to TMZ, and claims the real suffering is in the Hogan family.

Ugh. Anybody else's stomach turning here? On that note, we'll conclude today's look at the very un-glamorous side of Hollywood. I think we've had enough.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so tired of reading about these spoiled little craps getting away with it.
It is no wonder they think they are above the law.
Because they are!
Jail overcrowding never let some average Joe off the hook.
As a society we feed these monster's over inflated egos by allowing them to buy their way out of the laws that apply to the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

Nick Hogan should have had to serve his sentence taking care of John day in and day out. Otherwise, I think the entire Hogan family deserves to have everyone forget about them as quickly as possible. They are all disgusting.

I really wish the tabloid media would stop catering to these idiots.

Anonymous said...

You know there was a time when jail was reserved for violent and deviant people it once carried a stigma, now there are so many people in jail or prison for ridiculous offenses it's a joke now the U.S.A. is the laughing stock of the world were a nation of criminals, locking up traffic offenders , drug users and other non-violent offenders for what to show how tough we are on crime? WHAT A JOKE. The former chief Justice of The U.S. Supreme Court was a drug addict and made rulings on drug offenses, drug testing and these stupid sentences drunk drivers, and drug addicts recieve ,like I said what a joke, we have 300 million people in this country and 3 million are in prisons and who knows how many are on some sort of supervised release. Now China, a communist country with 1.4 billion, (with a (B) ), people have 1.5 million in there prisons, eventually this country will collapse under its own weight and deservedly so then I want to hear all these tough on crime morons with their war on drugs, war on drunk drivers war on everything and the U.S. is worried about terrorist or a foreign country invading, not likely we'll destroy ourselves!!!!!!!

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