In June 1995, Hugh Grant made headlines for performing a sex act with sex worker Divine Brown in Los Angeles.
He splurged $50 – £45 – for Divine to provide him with oral sex in his car on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard.
Soon the pair were arrested and their mugshots went viral, or as viral as one could go in 1995.
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Police were initially clued into the incident as Grant was repeatedly pressing the brake pedal in his car, causing the brake lights to flash off and on, while in the throes of pleasure.
Divine, real name Estella Marie Thompson, pleaded no contest to a charge of lewd conduct, and was ordered to perform five days of community service and attend an AIDS education class.
She also had to pay $1,150 in fines for parole violations from a 1993 solicitation charge and sentenced to 180 days behind bars.
Grant, meanwhile, was fined $1,180 and placed on probation for two years, as well as completing the same course Divine did.
But what has happened to her since then? From hitting a “new low” to further legal troubles, Daily Star takes a look.
Legal troubles
Divine’s arrest with Hugh wasn’t the only trouble she had with the law. A year later in 1996, she was arrested at the MGM Grand Las Vegas after making suggestive comments to undercover cops.
She was fined $950 for loitering for the purpose of prostitution and resisting arrest, but denied she was involved in sex work at the time.
Though she sold her story of romping with Grant to the News of the World for a reported sum of $150,000, she later faced a $5,000 breach of contract lawsuit for failing to show up for an interview with a radio station in Cincinnati.
‘New low’
Divine looked totally unrecognisable as she stepped out in her local neighbourhood after hitting a “new low” in October 2022.
Pictured wearing a black boob tube top that exposed her tummy, she appeared in light-wash denim jeans and an oversized blue shirt worn open at the front, and smoked a cigarette as she talked on the phone.
Her neighbours told The Mirror: “Divine is all about appearances.
“Never did the saying ‘red shoes and no knickers’ sum anyone up better.
“She likes to have people believe she drives a Porsche, wears Prada clothes and Gucci shoes. The reality is far from that
“She has no car, and the shoes she steps out in are nasty old flip-flops.”
They added that there is “constant shouting” coming from her home, usually when Divine is “drunk”.
Facing jail
Divine found herself on the wrong side of the cops once more last year, when they were called to her apartment.
A 13-year-old victim alleged Divine grabbed her by the arm and threw her around the flat, while under the influence of “alcohol or something because she has seen her pop pills before”.
The attending officer on the scene, Chance Gilbert, said that the victim attempted to run out of the door but Divine “grabbed her by the face and scratched her”.
The girl was taken to hospital while Divine was carted off to Fulton County Jail, where officers discovered what appeared to be cocaine hidden inside her body.
Now facing a drug possession charge, Divine could spend up to 30 years in jail.
Reason for encounter
Hugh, meanwhile, has since opened up on exactly why he sought out Divine’s services in the first place.
He revealed on the WTF podcast that he was so insecure about his new comedy Nine Months that he turned to a sex worker to help forget his problems.
Explaining: “I was about to launch my first Hollywood film — my timing was impeccable.
“The film was about to come out a week or two after that, and I had a bad feeling about it. I went to see a screening. Everyone in it was brilliant, but I was so atrocious that I was not in a good frame of mind.”
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So Hugh decided to cheat on his long-term partner Elizabeth Hurley as his mood dropped.
“I had a Ken Russell kind of lunch – and one thing led to another. I just was disappointed in myself. I don’t know what was going on. It was called Nine Months.”
And as to why he wasn’t cancelled by Hollywood?
“The film did alright at the box office, in fact I think it did quite well, and that’s all Hollywood really cares about.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk