A New Role for Doherty: DUI Suspect

Actress Shannen Doherty, best known for her role as the sassy Brenda Walsh on the television series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” was arrested early Thursday morning in Thousand Oaks on suspicion of drunk driving.

Doherty, 29, of Culver City, was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers at about 3 a.m. after they noticed her black 2001 Ford pickup weaving in and out of lanes on the northbound Ventura Freeway near Ventu Park Road, Officer Mike Moriarty said.

Officers conducted a field sobriety test on Doherty at the scene Thursday morning but Moriarty said he did not know the results. Doherty refused to take a breath test to determine her blood-alcohol level, opting instead for a blood test, he said.

Although standard bail for a drunk driving arrest is $2,500, Doherty was released on her own recognizance at 9:30 a.m., Moriarty said.

Blood test results will be forwarded to the Ventura County district attorney’s office and will be available in five to seven days, he said.

The actress, who could not be reached for comment, faces a Jan. 26 arraignment in Ventura County Superior Court. Repeated calls to her publicist, agent and production company were also not returned Thursday.

She currently appears on the television series, “Charmed” on the WB network. She also appeared in the recent made-for-TV movie “Satan’s School for Girls.”

This is not the first brush with the law for the actress, once a favorite of Republican Party gatherings where she was considered a role model for American youth. She led the Pledge of Allegiance at the Republican National Convention in Houston in 1992.

Doherty agreed to anger-management counseling and two years’ probation after an August 1996 incident outside a West Hollywood bar in which she threw a beer bottle at a car window.

A Los Angeles County judge ordered Doherty to pay $5,400 or perform 540 hours of community service after she pleaded no contest to a vandalism charge. She was sentenced to 24 months’ probation in September 1997.

Doherty paid the fine and completed the anger-management counseling, court officials said.

Her tempestuous private life has often mirrored her on-screen roles. She has long been a favorite on the Hollywood celebrity bar and party circuit, which led to the bottle-throwing incident in 1996. Doherty also had several script battles on the set of “Beverly Hills, 90210” playing the role of the twin sister of Brandon, played by Jason Priestley. She left the show in 1994.

In a 1998 interview with The Times, Doherty said her days of fast-living and partying were in the past.

“I just did all those things that everyone does when they’re between the ages of 18 and 23,” Doherty said during the filming of “Charmed.” “I just don’t have the urge to do those things anymore like I used to. I mean, it sold before, and if the media thinks it’s gonna sell again, they’re wrong. The public’s sick of it.”

Doherty’s arrest Thursday came one day after Priestley made a progress report on his own drunk driving conviction stemming from a 1999 incident.

Priestley was arrested in December 1999 on suspicion of felony drunk driving when his auto careened off a power pole, knocked over a row of trash cans and then smashed into a parked car on Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills. He pleaded no contest to the drunk driving charge and will be back in court Jan. 30. The actor had a brief progress hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday.