Celebs Stealing for Kicks?

L O S   A N G E L E S, Feb. 7 -- While Hollywood street vendors push "Save Winona" T-shirts, actress Winona Ryder is steering clear of the paparazzi hounding her since her December shoplifting arrest. As she awaits a preliminary hearing, the actress can take comfort in knowing she's not a lone star.

There's a long list of celebrities arrested on shoplifting charges. Just last week, Olympic gold medalist Olga Korbut was charged with stealing $19 in groceries from a Georgia supermarket.

Tennis star Jennifer Capriati shocked her fans a few years back when she was accused of stealing a ring from a small store in Tampa, Fla. Movie critic Rex Reed was once charged with lifting a couple of CDs. And Bess Myerson, the former Miss America, was arrested 15 years ago for stealing $44 dollars in merchandise.

Need, Greed, Kicks?

Why would celebrities, who have fame, fortune and a reputation to protect choose to shoplift?

UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Heather Krell said the drive to shoplift is similar to the drive someone has to become a star.

"In order to be a celebrity you have to take lots of chances," Krell said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

"You have to believe in yourself and that you're going to prevail and you have to get caught up in the moment. And it certainly seems that that's part of shoplifting," she said.

Lawyer Says It's All a Mistake

On Tuesday, Ryder pleaded not guilty to four felony charges. The actress was arrested Dec. 12 after being stopped outside Saks Fifth Avenue on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard with allegedly stolen merchandise worth more than $4,000. She was released on $20,000 bail after being escorted to the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Investigators say the actress, who has appeared in films such as Girl, Interrupted and The Age of Innocence, was seen on a store security camera using a pair of scissors to cut security tags off merchandise.

The 30-year-old actress was also found in possession of pharmaceutical drugs for which she had no prescription, police said. The four felony charges are theft, burglary, vandalism and possession of a controlled drug — Oxycodone, a prescription painkiller.