Bai Ling Speaks Out on Shoplifting

PageSix.com spoke exclusively with Bai Ling about her February 15 arrest. The Anna and The King star tells all about the airport misunderstanding, the American jail system and even Helen Mirren’s advice for coping.

The afternoon in question is what Bai calls a mix-up due to confusion while she was trying to make a flight to Albuquerque, NM.

The actress, 37, en route to shoot her new film Love Ranch, says she bought a toy in a gift shop at Los Angeles International Airport for a friend, and simultaneously went about powering the toy while balancing text messages and phone calls.

Enter the batteries.

“I went across the [hall] with the toy in my hand, and asked which battery would fit. They told me [they knew which would fit], but they had really long line and I had to make the flight.”

Bai claimed store clerks asked if she could wait and she agreed, exiting to the side of the shop, continuing to call and text.

“I literally walked to the side of the store, textng, talking. Then the police come. All the lights, and they took me. I had no intention to take,” she says.

Good thing the DA agrees — the charge has been reduced to an infraction, meaning she had no criminal intent during the kerfuffle.