Nicole Richie Does 82 Minutes of Hard Time

Well, that wasn't so bad now, was it? Nicole Richie, if you haven't heard, turned herself into the authorities on Thursday and served about 82 minutes of her four-day jail sentence. That, as Actress Archives points out, is shorter than the typical movie-theatre excursion.

The uber-short jail time took place at the very same facility where Richie's on-off BFF Paris Hilton served her 23 days, the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

To head off cries of preferential treatment, LA police have explained that the occurrence is actually a very common one. Sergeant John Hocking is quoted, "At this time, the criteria for a female arrestee sentenced to 30 days or less for a nonviolent offense is as follows: The arrestee is booked, screened and usually released within 12 hours. This procedure is based on jail overcrowding to manage population levels mandated by federal court guidelines." Hmmm.

In addition to serving about 0.7% of her actual sentence, Richie may have set a new record, reports E! News. The celebutante may hold the distinguished honor of serving the shortest celebrity time behind bars, the entertainment source reports. She easily beat actress Michelle Rodriguez, the previous record holder. Rodriguez sat in a jail cell (in the very same facility) for just over four hours last year.

Now, Richie just has to worry about having fiancee Joel Madden's baby and planning a wedding as she joins him and his band, Good Charlotte, on tour. According to E! News, the couple opted to wait until after the birth of their child to wed. "She wants to do it on her own schedule. And it will be done because they are in love, not because they are up against a deadline."

Another familiar face turning up on the wrong side of the law these days is Lindsay Lohan. We'll have to wait to see whether or not her recently imposed one-day jail sentence actually winds up being more like five minutes.