Celebutante Paris Hilton charged with DUI

Hotel heiress and budding pop star Paris Hilton has been charged with driving under the influence, Los Angeles officials announced Tuesday.

Hilton is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on Thursday, said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for L.A. prosecutors. He added that she is not required to appear at the arraignment, which was later postponed until December.

Police stopped Hilton's Mercedes-Benz SLR in the early hours of Sept. 7 and arrested her after conducting a sobriety test and discovering she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 per cent — the minimum level to warrant an arrest.

At the time, Hilton's spokesperson Elliot Mintz attributed the incident to "an empty stomach and working all day and being fatigued."

Shereiterated the story just a few hours later when she called into a popular morning radio show hosted by media personality Ryan Seacrest.

Hilton told listeners that the arrest came after a long day working on a new music video for her recently released, self-titled album. She said she had attended an evening charity event, where she purportedly had a single margarita on an empty stomach.

She also told Seacrest that when arrested, she may have been "speeding a little bit" but that it was because she was on her way to get a hamburger.

If convicted, Hilton could face the minimum sentence of a fine, probation and enrollment in an alcohol-rehabilitation program. However, the maximum sentence is six months in jail and a fine of $1,000 US.

A notorious party girl, Hilton has become a North American pop culture phenomenon. Dubbed a "celebutante" by the media and known both for her TV reality series The Simple Life and a sex tape that circulated on the internet by an ex-boyfriend, the heiress to the Hilton hotel chain has most recently been expanding into movies and music.