Gus Van Sant Popped for DUI

Gus Van Sant has directed himself right into the hands of the law. 

The Oscar-nominated Good Will Hunting auteur was picked up early Thursday morning on a drunk driving charge in Portland, Oregon. 

Police spokesman Sergeant Brian Schmautz said that, at approximately 1:40 a.m., officers noticed Van Sant's 2006 Porsche Cayenne stopped at a traffic light, headlights off. The filmmaker was pulled over and asked to take a field sobriety test after the cops smelled alcohol and observed that he had glassy, bloodshot eyes and was slurring his speech. News of the arrest was first reported by thesmokinggun.com.

Van Sant's Breathalyzer test registered a 0.19 blood alcohol level, more than twice the state's legal limit, Schmautz said, after which he was taken to the Multnomah County Jail and booked on a misdemeanor DUI charge. The 54-year-old To Die For director is expected in court Jan. 17 for arraignment. 

Van Sant, who lives in Portland, has been sticking close to home lately, shooting his latest film, Paranoid Park, in and around the city. The dark drama centers on a teenage skateboarder, played by newcomer Gabe Nevins, who accidentally kills a security guard and whose life becomes one big maelstrom of guilt, confusion and a hasty cover-up. 

Sounds like vintage Van Sant, whose most recent projects were the Cannes favorite Elephant, about a Columbine-style high school shooting, and Last Days, which closely follows a Kurt Cobain-inspired troubled rocker in the days leading up to his suicide. 

According to the Oregonion, Van Sant is currently thinking outside the directorial box and turning his attention to the art of the dance. The Drugstore Cowboy visionary, who also has been known to paint, strum a guitar and pen tunes for his Portland rock band Destroy All Blondes, is choreographing a number for the local progressive dance company BodyVox, entitled "Chaos Variations."

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