Nicole Richie will appear in court this morning and plead either guilty or no contest to driving under the influence. Richie was cited at 4:30am on December 11th when sheriffs deputies approached her car after several 911 calls reported Richie driving the wrong way down the Burbank Freeway. Richie was parked in the carpool lane and talking on her cell phone when they found her. When questioned, she admitted she was high on vicodin and had been smoking marijuana. This was not her first DUI. In 2002, she was arrested for driving 50 miler per hour in a 15 mph zone near UCLA. She had a .13 blood alcohol level, almost twice the legal limit. Six months later, she was convicted for possession of heroin and driving on a suspended license. About today’s court proceeding, TMZ says:

Richie will plead either guilty or no contest to DUI. She will appear before the Court Commissioner, who will sentence her on the spot. Sources say Richie will receive a minimum sentence of five days in jail. By law, anyone with two DUI convictions must serve at least five days. This conviction will be Nicole’s second DUI.

Put Richie in a red dress, and let her try to out run a bull for five days in a row, then maybe she’d understand how a victim of a DUI driver feels.

Al Gore III has been in trouble many times before. Is this a bad parenting issue?

- In 1996, he was suspended from his high school for smoking marijuana.
- In August 2000, he was ticketed for reckless driving by North Carolina police for driving 94 mph.
- In September 2002, military police arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving near a military base in Virginia.
- In 2003, he was charged with marijuana possession in Maryland after police stopped the car he was driving for not having its headlights on.
- In February 2004, he entered a substance abuse program as part of a plea agreement.

Here’s more:

Al Gore’s son was pulled over for speeding on a California freeway early Wednesday and arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana and prescription drugs, authorities said.

Al Gore III, 24, was driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 mph south on the San Diego Freeway when he was pulled over by sheriff’s deputies who said they smelled marijuana, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

The deputies searched the car and found less than an ounce of marijuana along with Xanax, Valium, Vicodin, and Adderall, which is used for attention deficit disorder, Amormino said.

"He does not have a prescription for any of those drugs," Amormino said.

Gore was being held in the men’s central jail in Santa Ana on $20,000 bail.