Reese Witherspoon was arrested for disorderly conduct Friday morning when she refused to let the police arrest her husband, Jim Toth, for a DUI without a fight.
Witherspoon didn’t roll her sleeves up and attempt to fight the officer, but she was convinced that her stardom was enough to get her man a “get out of jail free” card.
All it really got her was some bad publicity and some dirt on her once clean all-American reputation.
“You are going to be on national news,” Witherspoon allegedly told a Georgia state trooper as he handcuffed her on Atlanta’s Peachtree Road early Friday morning.
That didn’t discourage Trooper First Class J. Pyland from writing a very quotable arrest report suitable for national news.
Witherspoon, who is in Atlanta to make a movie titled “The Good Lie,” is charged with interfering with Pyland’s arrest of her husband, Hollywood agent James Toth, on a drunken driving charge.
“Mrs. Witherspoon began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe that I was a real police officer,” Pyland wrote. “I told Mrs. Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet.”
Witherspoon, 37, allegedly did not follow his order, getting out of the Ford Fusion instead. When the trooper warned her again, Witherspoon allegedly told him she was a U.S. citizen and allowed to “stand on American ground.” Her American pride got her handcuffed.
“I put my hands on Mrs. Witherspoon’s arms to arrest her,” Pyland wrote. “Mrs. Witherspoon was resistant but I was able to put handcuffs on her without incident due to Mr. Toth calming her.”
“Do you know my name?” he said Witherspoon asked. “I answered, ‘No, I don’t need to know your name.'”
“You’re about to find out who I am,” she replied, the arrest report said.
The couple was released on bond around 3:30 am Friday and still hasn’t received any word about their court appearance.
On Sunday, Witherspoon’s rep refused to comment on the incident but has apparently changed his mind over night.
Reese released a statement via her rep to apologize about the entire incident.
“Out of respect for the ongoing legal situation, I cannot comment on everything that is being reported right now,” she said in the statement, “But I do want to say, I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said.”
She went on to describe everything as being a “scary situation” but admitted that was still “no excuse” for her to be so “disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job.”
“It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse. I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job. The words I used that night definitely do not reflect who I am. I have nothing but respect for the police and I’m very sorry for my behavior.”
Do you think the arrest will have any measurable impact on Reese’s reputation and career?
