<i>90210</i> Actor In Car Crash

Actor Jason Priestley was driving in the Hollywood Hills early Friday when he crashed into a utility pole, injuring a passenger, police said.

The former star of Fox television's Beverly Hills, 90210 was booked on suspicion of felony drunk driving and released several hours later on $50,000 bond, according to Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Beth Vandenberg.

His blood test results were not immediately available, she said.

Priestley, who was returning home from a concert at the time of the crash, denied he had been drinking and said he believed the drunk driving investigation was standard police procedure.

"I think they do that to everybody...especially if you're a celebrity in this town," he said after being freed from the LAPD's Hollywood station.

The passenger, whose name was not released, suffered a broken arm in the crash, police said. Priestley was not hurt.

"The car is bad, and my buddy hurt himself and that's why they brought me down here," Priestley said.

The actor told investigators he swerved to avoid a deer while driving the new Porsche on the residential area's steep, narrow streets shortly after midnight.

He apparently lost control of the vehicle, which slammed into a utility pole and pinballed around the street, colliding with several trash cans and the back of a parked car.

The vehicle, which was badly damaged, came to rest in the middle of the road facing the wrong direction, according to Vandenberg.

"We believe he was speeding. If he had gone [the limit of] 25 mph, he wouldn't have been thrown around that far," she said.

Priestley was booked on felony drunk driving instead of a misdemeanor count because a person was injured in the crash, Vandenberg added.