What is it with celebrities and drugs? They just can’t say no.
Lindsay Lohan has confirmed on her Twitter page that she failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol screening, and she said that if asked, she is ready to appear before the judge in her case and face the consequences for her actions.
In a series of messages posted late Friday, the actress said, “Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test.” She also said, “Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn’t go away over night. I am working hard to overcome it.” Lohan often posts updates with the account that’s verified by Twitter as belonging to the actress.
A person familiar with the case, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the positive test results earlier Friday. The person declined to specify what substance triggered the positive result, which the source said occurred within the last month.
The failed drug test was first reported by TMZ.com.
The test result could mean a probation violation and more jail time for the 24-year-old actress. In July, Lohan was sentenced to three months in jail followed by three months in rehab after violating probation stemming from a pair of drug and driving under the influence cases filed after two arrests in 2007.
She ended up serving two weeks in jail and another 23 days in an inpatient rehab treatment at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
A hearing would be conducted before Lohan could be returned to jail.
And from one perp to another. Paris Hilton has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanors stemming from her arrest last month at a Las Vegas resort, a Nevada prosecutor said.
Under the terms of a plea deal worked out with prosecutors, the celebrity heiress will serve a year of probation and avoid a felony conviction, Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Friday.
A plea agreement obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Hilton will plead guilty to drug possession and obstructing an officer. She must complete a drug abuse program, pay a US$2,000 fine and serve 200 hours of community service.
Hilton, 29, was arrested on
Aug. 26 inside the Wynn resort, after police say a small plastic bag containing 0.8 grams of cocaine fell out of her designer purse as she reached for a tube of lip balm in front of a police lieutenant.
Roger and defense attorney David Chesnoff confirmed the details of the plea deal reported by the Review-Journal. The original felony cocaine possession charge would not have resulted in any jail time.
Roger said he wanted to obtain a pledge from the hotel heiress to stay out of trouble, and said the plea deal accomplished that goal.
“If she is arrested for anything besides a minor traffic violation she will spend a year in jail,” Roger said. “There will be no discussion. The court will have no discretion.”
Hilton initially told police the purse and cocaine were not hers, but claimed some items in the bag, including rolling papers, US$1,300 in cash and several credit cards.
She was questioned by police after her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, 34, failed field sobriety tests given by a motorcycle officer.
The couple was stopped in a
black Cadillac Escalade after the officer smelled a “vapor trail” of marijuana smoke.
Hilton was banned from two Wynn resorts on the Las Vegas Strip after the arrest, and her boyfriend was dismissed as a nightclub partner.
Hilton briefly faced a marijuana charge in July after a World Cup match in South Africa, but the case was dropped when a woman who was with her pleaded guilty to possessing the drug.
Hilton is scheduled to appear this morning before Judge Joe M.
Meanwhile, jailed British singer George Michael has abandoned an application for bail, the Press Association reported on Friday.
The 47-year-old was sentenced to eight weeks in prison last week for crashing his car while high on cannabis, and lawyers acting on his behalf had planned to ask for bail for the singer in an apparent bid to appeal against his sentence.
“The bail application has been abandoned,” said a spokeswoman for Blackfriars Crown Court in London, where Michael had been listed to appear via video link from Pentonville Prison. His lawyer declined to comment on the decision.
Michael was banned from driving for two years in 2007 and sentenced
to 100 hours of community service after admitting driving when unfit due to drugs.
In 2008, Michael apologized to fans after being arrested and cautioned by police for possession of drugs and promised to “sort himself out.”
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS