Gerard Depardieu caught drunk on scooter

Paris - French actor Gerard Depardieu was detained on Thursday for allegedly driving drunk on his scooter, police officials in Paris said.

The 63-year-old actor, who has appeared in more than 150 films, was brought to a Paris police station on Thursday afternoon, an official with the Paris police department said.

The Paris prosecutor's office ordered him to be detained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to discuss ongoing investigations.

The actor was picked up after he fell off his scooter in northwest Paris. He failed a sobriety test and was taken to a police station.

Several encounters with the law

A call to Depardieu's management company was not returned on Thursday.

Thursday's incident was one of several encounters with the law for Depardieu. He grabbed headlines earlier this year when he urinated in the aisle of a plane before takeoff on a Paris to Dublin flight. He was removed from the aircraft.

In 1998, he crashed his motorcycle when his blood-alcohol limit was five times over the legal level, escaping with leg and face injuries.

Depardieu, who overcame a speech impediment and a childhood of neglect to become one of France's most popular and versatile film stars, was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in 1990 film Cyrano de Bergerac.