US reality TV "star" Nicole Richie is apparently none the worse for the wear after serving a hellish 82 minutes of a four-day drink-drive sentence, the BBC reports.

Richie, 25, was hauled off to the Lynwood celebrity hang-out jail - recently favoured with a quick visit from Paris Hilton - and duly fingerprinted. She didn't, however, get as far as the cells, since she was then released "based on her sentence and federal guidelines".

In an apparent attempt to prevent the US's prisons bursting at the seams with ne'er-do-well celebutards and Blackberry-chucking rapstresses, "inmates sentenced to less that 30 days for non-violent crimes are usually released within 12 hours", the Beeb explains.

Richie was nabbed last December driving the wrong way down a motorway. She subsequently coughed to a "driving under the influence of drink and drugs" rap, and was sentenced to four days' jail. The judge also handed down three years' probation and ordered her to attend a drug treatment programme.

Having escorted his client from chokey, Richie's lawyer Chapman Holley assured the awaiting press: "She was really treated like any other inmate." Reports that a weeping Richie added that her slammer ordeal "felt like a 100 minutes" are unconfirmed. ®

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