HEIRESS PARIS EMBARRASSED POLICE ACCUSE CELEB OF DRINKING, DRIVING.

Byline: FRED SHUSTER Staff Writer

A lone margarita and a dash to In-N-Out for a Double-Double set the stage for Paris Hilton's pre-dawn encounter Thursday with a Hollywood cop and the Breathalyzer test that registered around the world.

Within hours, the planet was buzzing with the latest dish on the ``That's Hot'' girl with such headlines as ``Paris Hilton -- Loaded in So Many Ways'' and ``Paris: Hunger Drove Me to Crime.''

Hilton, 25, heiress to the Hilton hotel dynasty and known for her hard-partying lifestyle and telepathic ability to draw paparazzi, was pictured on numerous Web sites behind the wheel of her silver Mercedes-Benz SLR calling for reinforcements after she was popped for suspected drunk driving.

Charges have not been filed and no mug shot was taken. (Could it be a stylist couldn't be booked on such short notice?) Hilton failed a sobriety test and, if charged, will be arraigned Sept. 28, according to the City Attorney's Office.

Hilton's encounter with a pair of steel cuffs (``not the pink, fuzzy kind,'' as Jay Leno quipped Thursday night on his show) did little to dampen her party spirit. Late Thursday, the celebrity socialite planned to attend a release bash at Hollywood's ultra-trendy Cabana club for her straight-to-video new movie, the appropriately titled ``Bottoms Up.'' (At the party, hip-hopper Sleepy Brown was expected to perform his hit ``Margarita.'')

Hilton told local radio host Ryan Seacrest on Thursday she'd had one frosty, salt-rimmed Cuervo on an empty stomach at a fund-raising party after a long day shooting a music video when she was pulled over by motorcycle cops early Thursday at Selma and Wilcox avenues, ostensibly for driving in an erratic fashion.

``I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out burger,'' the 5-foot-9-inch, 110-pound blonde explained. ``I had one margarita. (I was) starving because I had not ate all day.'' Apparently loyalty wasn't an issue, since the leggy heiress once did a racy Carl's Jr. spot that drew protests.

Hilton avoided the perp walk but still had to make a cameo at the cop shop. However, the exact amount of time spent at the station is in dispute. Police Lt. Russ Wong, the watch commander on duty at the Hollywood Division on Thursday, says Hilton was released after 90 minutes ``because a gaggle of paparazzi appeared at the station and posed a significant traffic hazard.''

Hilton spokesman Elliot Mintz said sister Nicky and Nicky's boyfriend, actor Kevin Connolly of TV's ``Entourage,'' picked Paris up at the police station in Hollywood.

Hilton told Seacrest it was actually more like 15 minutes being served and protected by the boys in blue. On the test, she registered a .08, the threshold for being charged with DUI in California.

Hilton, who was accompanied in the car by Kimberly Stewart, daughter of rocker Rod Stewart, insists the LAPD really didn't want to take her in but was just trying to save face so the media wouldn't think she was being given special treatment.

``Everything I do is blown out of proportion,'' said Hilton, who is famous chiefly for being famous. ``It really hurts my feelings.''

Hilton never got her burger, but she says she finally stepped up to the plate by chomping down a batch of pancakes when she got home.

Questions still trouble dedicated Paris-watchers. For example, she told Seacrest that after she left the video set, before the margarita, she met up with Nicky and other gal pals for ``dinner.'' But later in the same interview, she said she'd had nothing to eat all day when she arrived at the charity event.

Mintz backs up the empty tummy theory: ``She had one drink on an empty stomach after a full day's work.''

This week, Hilton was shooting a video for the song ``Nothing in This World'' in Pasadena and Long Beach. Her start time, she said, was a bleary-eyed 5 a.m.

Since the much-discussed run-in with the law, Web sites have had a field day, including superimposing Hilton's head onto actor Nick Nolte's famous mug shot.

The column inches spent on Hilton continue to mount, but will the arrest hurt or help the girl in the glare?

The publicity couldn't hurt, judging by mediocre sales of her album ``Paris,'' which was savaged unmercifully by critics. Reviews ranged from ``anonymous and unsexy,'' ``flat, toneless, personality-free'' and ``Sexy? Only if you get turned on by a wad of cotton candy.''

Leno may have put it best: ``This is the most embarrassing thing to happen to Paris Hilton since her CD came out.''

Staff Writer Sandra Barrera contributed to this report.

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Paris Hilton arrives at her home in Los Angeles with spokesman Elliot Mintz after being arrested early Thursday morning for investigation of driving under the influence.

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