Paris before her arrest (and with a different purse) on 8/24/10. Boobs! Credit: Fame Pictures

Paris Hilton told the cop she stupidly (or deliberately, more on that in a moment) asked to hold her purse that it was borrowed from a friend after the cocaine dropped out. She later changed her story, by way of a “source” that told TMZ that Paris lent the purse to a friend, who put the coke in it and returned it with the drugs still in it, “setting her up.” The sleuths at Radar Online went through Paris’ Twitter account and found a picture of the bedazzled Chanel purse in question that she proudly tweeted six weeks ago, bragging about her purchase “Love My New Chanel Purse I got Today. 🙂” They also found photos of her toting it in July in St. Tropez. So I guess that story that the purse was someone elses has fallen through. No wonder she tried to switch it up.

There’s suspicion that Paris Hilton set up the whole cocaine bust in an attempt to earn some headlines to compete with Lindsay’s incarceration. After all, she put the damn purse in the cop’s hands before the coke fell out. I don’t give her that much credit. I think that she just forgot the coke was in there and expected the policeman to act as her valet. It’s just a coincidence that she had her hair expertly styled with perfect makeup on before her mug shot was taken. She was in Vegas partying with her boyfriend and she usually looks put together like that. Here’s In Touch’s take on this story. They note that it’s the most attention Paris has received in years:

Though she probably could have avoided interaction with the police, the 29-year-old allegedly dropped a small bag of cocaine from her purse in front of attending officers – resulting in her arrest and subsequent charge with felony drug possession. In the report, Paris denied that the purse she was carrying was hers. But Paris seemed to encourage the sudden explosion of news coverage, despite the fact that she faces up to four years in the slammer.

Could Paris’ recent run-in with the law be just another attempt to reclaim the spotlight? Some media experts have publicly questioned her motives…

Once Hollywood royalty, she has fallen by the wayside while the likes of former friend Kim Kardashian, 29, are conquering the red carpet. “She has been plotting for a way to get back into the limelight, and getting arrested for cocaine is extreme but it worked,” a friend tells In Touch

[From In Touch, print edition, September 13, 2010]

I could be convinced that Paris saw an opportunity when the cops pulled her over and took advantage of it to drop drugs into their hands. It’s possible. I’m still thinking it was a stupid mistake, but she would also be stupid enough to think she would get off with a slap on the wrist. It might happen for her after all. We’ve heard that Paris is facing serious jail time for this latest incident, but it’s possible her charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor. If she’s charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony she could get off with community service and a fine. It’s possible that the DA won’t throw the book at her after all. (Radar has more on that.) It’s thought that her lawyer is going to try and get her off on a technicality anyway. Cops didn’t ask for a blood test to verify whether she was on drugs and her lawyer may also argue that the search of Paris was not legal since it happened inside the hotel and not at the scene. It’s not like they had to do much to find the coke, though.