Nicole Richie's life may seem like a bad soap opera to many of us, but dad Lionel thinks it is all par for the course. Speaking to reporters after his performance at the Essence Music Festival last Saturday, he admits that Nicole "keeps apologizing to me," but that he tells her "You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing to your father at this age."

Apparently, what Nicole is supposed to be doing to her father at the age of 25 is going on trial for her second DUI charge. If convicted, she faces up to one year in jail and probably a lucrative book deal. Regarding her legal woes, Lionel says "She's just in an unfortunate situation."

I don't think Lionel means that it is unfortunate that his daughter has been charged with DUI again. He seems to thinks it is unfortunate that celebrities today face such scrutiny of their personal lives. "There's just so much information out there right now MySpace, cell phones, the Internet," he said. "If we had had all that when The Commodores were around, God only knows what my mother and father would have seen."

An truly unfortunate situation is somebody being injured or killed as a result of drunk driving.