This image was lost some time after publication.

Bill Murray, who became a plaid-knickered folk hero to drunken, globe-hopping duffers everywhere after being pulled over by the killjoy Swedish police on suspicion of silently whirring down the streets of Stockholm in a borrowed golf cart while under the influence of too many vodka-infused Arnold Palmers, has finally answered for the antics that briefly rocked the world of Scandinavian law enforcement two weeks ago. Explains Murray about the post-party shuttle service he offered to some fellow revelers:

The police "asked me to come over and they assumed that I was drunk and I explained to them that I was a golfer," Murray told reporters Monday at the Venice Film Festival, where he appeared before the premiere of his new film "The Darjeeling Limited." [...]

"I ended up stopping and dropping people off on the way like a bus. I had about six people in the thing and I dropped them off one at a time and as the last couple were getting out, who wished to be dropped off at a 7-Eleven. ... I didn't know they had 7-Elevens in Stockholm," said Murray, who turns 57 on September 21.

Even though we realize that the outstanding drunk-driving charges probably necessitated this cautious explanation of how Murray came to be cruising downtown Stockholm, we were hoping for a more stirring, defiant statement, perhaps one where the actor detailed how the police showed up just in time to ruin his plan to douse the purloined golf cart in Absolut and set it ablaze in that 7-11 parking lot, thumbing his nose at a country that would deprive visiting Hollywood royalty of the alcohol-drenched good times that are its birthright.