The Lost In Translation and Caddyshack star was returning to his hotel after visiting a golf tournament. Police spotted him driving the slow moving vehicle and noticed he smelled of alcohol when they pulled him over. He submitted a blood test and will face charges if results show he exceeded the legal alcohol limit.

The public nature of the incident is out of character with Bill Murray’s obsession with guarding his privacy. Unlike many of his A-list peers, he has remained extremely detached from Hollywood, has no agent or manager and reportedly only fields offers for scripts and roles via a telephone voicemail service that he checks infrequently. It’s rumoured that this caused him to lose out on roles in Monsters Inc and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Celebrities driving badly

If charged, Murray won’t be the first leading man to be cited for drink driving. Mel Gibson was famously nicked on suspicion of drink driving and launched into a spectacularly offensive anti-Semitic rant aimed at the arresting officers. Gibson had previously angered America’s Jewish community with his film The Passion of the Christ

Joining Mel on the roll of shame is Caprice Bourret. The model was found guilty of drink driving in August 2006 and consequently lost her driving licence. Not even the legal assistance of Nick Freeman, the high profile lawyer known as Mr Loophole, could help her beat the charge. More recently, US celeb Nicole Richie was sentenced to 4 days in jail after failing a sobriety test.

A number of famous Brits have also fallen foul of driving under the influence. EastEnders’ vamp Jessie Wallace received a 3 year driving ban in December 2003 while Cold Feet and Fast Show star John Thompson received a similar ban for the same offence. And let us not forget footballer Jermaine Pennant who was jailed in 2005 after admitting drink driving whilst banned from being behind the wheel. The Liverpool star’s car was still dragging a lamppost he had crashed into when police stopped him.