Congrats on driving under the influence? Former bad boy Jason Priestley relived the “good ole days” on Wednesday, May 14, when he visited Chelsea Lately to talk about his new memoir.
Asked by host Chelsea Handler about a section of the book where he talks about spending the night with five Russians, the 90210 alum, 44, quickly set the record straight.
“I didn’t spend the night with them. I was in jail because I had a DUI,” he clarified. “You’ve had a DUI, I mean, come on!” Priestley then high-fived the comedian as the crowd cheered. “What self-respecting Los Angeleno doesn’t have a DUI under their belt?” he quipped.
“The important thing is not to get two,” Handler added.
Priestley was charged with the DUI in late 1999 and sentenced to spend five nights in federal lock-up, which was where he met his Russian pals.
“I walked in there, and I had no idea what I was walking into,” he recalled. “There were all these Russian dudes playing this crazy Russian card game where they rip up the cards and they throw the cards, and as I walk in they all stop playing the game and turn and look at me like it was a scene out of Indiana Jones. The biggest guy at the end of the table stands up slowly and he walks over to me, and he just opens his arms and he goes ‘Brandonnn!'”
Priestley, who played heartthrob Brandon Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210, left the show early, which he admitted to regretting during an Access Hollywood interview.
“I think Aaron [Spelling, the executive producer] was angling the show to end a different way,” Priestley speculated. “I think he wanted Brandon and Kelly [played by Jennie Garth] to end up together. I think my departure from the show ended that for him. Without a Walsh in the Walsh house, the show didn’t have a moral center anymore.”
When Access Hollywood hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover began grilling Priestley over rumored cast hookups, the now-husband to wife Naomi Priestley quickly became shy and vague.
He clarified that he never got with on-screen love interest Garth and certainly stayed away from his boss’ daughter Tori Spelling. He did say, however, “there were multiple engagements on the show with multiple people. Nobody ever got attached. Nobody ever let it get in the way of what we were doing. Work always superseded.”
