Nicole Richie was released from a California jail 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 the Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood at 3.15pm on Friday, was released at 4.37pm "based on her sentence and federal guidelines," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Maribel Rizo said without elaborating.
When asked whether Richie spent her brief sentence in a jail cell, Rizo replied: "No further comment."
A call to Richie's lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned. An email message to publicist Nicole Perna was not immediately answered.
The brief jail stay 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 licence while on probation for an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
Richie pleaded guilty in late July to a misdemeanour DUI charge in a deal with prosecutors that helped her avoid a potential year in jail on a second alcohol-related conviction in 2003.
She was arrested on December 11 after witnesses reported seeing her black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle headed the wrong way on a freeway.
The California Highway Patrol said they found her parked in the car pool lane.
Richie told authorities she had smoked marijuana and taken the prescription painkiller Vicodin, a CHP officer said at the time.
No drugs were found on her or in the car.
The adopted daughter of singer Lionel Richie, who is four months pregnant, had the option of serving 90 hours either in county jail or at any city jail.
Gossip; hearsay
