Paris Hilton charged in L A with drunk driving

LOS ANGELES, Sep 27 (Reuters) Heiress and celebrity socialite Paris Hilton was charged with drunk driving, stemming from an arrest earlier this month she blamed on her rush to get a late-night burger.

Hilton, a 25-year-old heiress to the Hilton hotel fortune known for her partying ways, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level above California's legal limit of .08 per cent yesterday.

The star of the reality TV show ''The Simple Life,'' faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a 1,000 dollar fine, though first-time offenders are often given probation and required to attend alcohol counseling, Los Angeles City Attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

She was set for an initial court date tomorrow but like most defendants facing similar charges would not be required to attend.

Hilton, who had a surprise summer hit with her first pop single, ''Stars are Blind,'' was pulled over by police in Hollywood for driving erratically at around 1300 hrs on September 7 and taken into custody after failing a sobriety test.

She later told KIIS-FM radio in an interview that she had been to a charity fund-raising party after a long day shooting a music video and had just one drink.

''I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day,'' she said. ''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 told the radio station that, as usual, there were a lot of photographers around.

''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','' she said.

Hilton's publicist Elliot Mintz, declined comment on the charges.

At the time of Hilton's arrest, Mintz said her blood alcohol level was ''the absolute minimum amount of alcohol in your system that would justify an arrest.'' REUTERS DKB VC0957