Monday July 9, 2007
Lester Cohen/WireImage.com; Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com
Lionel Richie is shrugging off his daughter Nicole’s wild ways, chalking up her current drunk driving charge to the typical behavior of a rebellious twentysomething.
"She keeps apologizing to me," Lionel Richie said at the Essence Music Festival on Saturday. "I told her, 'You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing to your father at this age.'"
Nicole Richie, 25, is scheduled to go on trial on Wednesday. She was arrested on December 11 after police stopped her for driving the wrong way on a California freeway.
At the time, she admitted to taking a Vicodin and smoking pot. She later pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence.
Richie could be facing jail time due to a prior misdemeanor DUI conviction in June 2003.
If convicted, The Simple Life star faces up to a year in jail.
"She's just in an unfortunate situation," said father Lionel.
The R&B singer said he’s thankful that, during his rise to fame, he wasn’t under as much scrutiny as celebrities are today.
"There's just so much information out there right now — MySpace, cell phones, the Internet," he said. "If we had had all that when The Commodores were around, God only knows what my mother and father would have seen."
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