Hold the press: with all the recent news about Charlie Sheen, the (extremely boring) Academy Awards, the protests in Wisconsin, and the revolutions in the middle east, you may not have heard that Christina Aguilera was arrested on charges for drunken and disorderly conduct. (Don’t worry too much; Christina Aguilera has now been released and won’t face criminal charges.) 

The singer was with her boyfriend when he was arrested for drunk driving recently after being followed by several paparazzi.  I normally don’t defend celebrities for their wayward ways and numerous arrests—mostly because I get such a nice feeling of schadenfraude from their exploits—but this arrest doesn’t seem quite fair.

First of all, Christina Aguilera’s boyfriend Matthew Rutler had something like thirty paparazzi chasing him around because of his famous passenger. So, the police arrested her boyfriend and this may have prevented a tragic end to a crazy car chase. But what I don’t understand at all is why Christina Aguilera was also arrested. If she wasn’t a celebrity, would she have been arrested for being a drunk passenger in the car? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think most passengers in cars get arrested when the driver is arrested for drunk driving.

Did some over-eager cop just have it out for Christina? Or maybe the cop was too star-struck and had dreams of appearing on Court TV with the gorgeous singer? Her boyfriend Matthew Rutler is in the entertainment industry and isn’t a total unknown, but let’s be realistic; Christina Aguilera was the obvious target of the Papparazzi and probably of the police as well.

The police statement about Christina Aguilera’s arrest didn’t seem to give an adequate reason for arresting her. The police said:

"When she got out of the car, she couldn't stand. We had to help her stand. She didn't know where she was and she didn't know her own address. We took her into custody for her own protection."

 

If the cops were really taking her into custody for “her own protection,” why did they have to arrest her? Couldn’t they give her the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” option of phoning a friend? If she was truthfully unable to remember who she was, couldn’t they have had her boyfriend—who only blew a .09—call someone for her? It’s little gestures like these that give cops a bad name.

I understand that celebrity arrests are exciting and get attention for hard-working police officers, but I wish they would only arrest people who actually committed crimes. Even though she was released, this will stay on her record.