Lionel Richie addressed his daughter Nicole‘s legal problems at the the Essence Music Festival on Saturday.
Nicole is scheduled to go on trial for drunk driving charges on Wednesday. The Simple Life star was arrested on Dec. 11 for driving while intoxicated and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. (Richie also had a DUI conviction in June 2003.)
“She keeps apologizing to me, I told her, you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing to your father at this age,” Lionel said.
The California vehicle code says a person convicted of DUI twice within 10 years can be looking at 90 days to a year in jail with their driving privileges suspended. It is to be determined whether Nicole will spend time in jail, following in the footsteps of her friend Paris Hilton. Hilton just served 23 days in jail after violating her probation in a DUI case.
The R&B sensation believes celebrities today are under the microscope more than ever before. “There’s just so much information out there right now. Myspace, cell phone, the internet,” Lionel said, “If we had had all that when The Commodores were around, God only knows what my mother and father would have seen.”
