I think someone read Nicole Richie’s paperwork wrong – she was supposed to spend 90 hours – or thereabouts – in jail, not 90 minutes. I kid, I kid. Actually it was probably the impending kid that helped her get some leniency. The penal system really is amazing in this country, but given the guidelines, she actually did serve a standard sentence (at this particular lockup) and wasn’t given special treatment – theoretically. Richie served her brief time – which may or may not have included actually sitting in a cell – at the same jail as Paris Hilton, who got to know the cells a much better than Nicole. Everyone always says Nicole is trying to copy Paris, and if that’s true she’s taking it a little too far.

“Nicole Richie was released from jail Thursday after serving 82 minutes of a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs. The reality show star, who checked into jail in this Los Angeles suburb at 3:15 p.m., was released at 4:37 p.m. ‘based on her sentence and federal guidelines,’ Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Maribel Rizo said without elaborating. When asked whether Richie, who is four months pregnant, spent her brief sentence in a jail cell, Rizo replied: ‘I have no further comment.’

“A call to Richie’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned Thursday. An e-mail message to her publicist Nicole Perna was not immediately answered. The brief jail stint took place at the county jail for women, the same place her ‘The Simple Life’ co-star Paris Hilton was housed for nearly three weeks after she was convicted of driving on a suspended license while on probation for an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

“Richie pleaded guilty in late July to a misdemeanor DUI charge in a deal with prosecutors that helped her avoid a potential year in jail on a second alcohol-related conviction. Her first conviction was in 2003, for driving under the influence of alcohol. Richie had the option of serving 90 hours either in county jail or at any city jail. She would have had to serve the full sentence in a city lockup.”

[From Forbes.com]

If nothing else, it’s good Nicole got her sentence over and done with. I’m sure being in jail while pregnant is always a challenge, but it’s got to be much worse the further along you are. I wonder if Nicole knew just how little time she’d do, or if her legal team was just hoping. They didn’t really offer any of that “overcrowding” spin they have with other stars, most famously with Michelle Rodriguez, who spent a comparatively longer four hours in lockup. It’s amazing to think that Nicole could have gotten up to a year, and instead served minutes. For a long time she was going to plead innocent and head to trial instead. Guess she made the right decision and really lucked out.

Picture note by JayBird: Header image from of Nicole showing off her bump on Wednesday. Image thanks to WENN.