'HAMLET' TO BE WHEN DOWNEY'S OK

Mel Gibson is far from giving up on Robert Downey Jr., whom he had hoped to
direct in an L.A. stage production of Hamlet next year.

"I only want to do it with him. That's what's exciting to me," says Gibson,
who was in New York promoting his new romantic comedy, What Women Want.

"I talked to him like a week ago," Gibson says of Downey, who faces
arraignment Dec. 27 on felony drug charges stemming from his arrest last
month in Palm Springs, Calif. Gibson insists: "He's gonna be OK. He's got a
good heart. Everybody falls. He just drew the wrong number." As for Hamlet,
"Hey, if he's ready, I'm ready."

Gibson, of course, played Hamlet himself in a 1990 movie, surprising many
with his powerful portrayal. He's among the scores of actors who maintain
faith in Downey and his talent. Matt Damon said at his All the Pretty
Horses premiere last weekend that Downey and Sean Penn are the two most
talented actors of his generation.

Downey is at work this week on more episodes of Ally McBeal.

I also talked to James Toback, who directed Downey in Two Girls and a Guy,
Black and White and The Pick-Up Artist. He notes that Gibson and Downey got
the Hamlet idea after Downey did a long passage from the play in Two Girls.
Then "They worked with Kenneth Branagh (another Hamlet) on The Gingerbread
Man, and Branagh said to him. 'You were spectacular.' "

Toback worked with Downey six weeks ago on the DVD commentary for Two Girls
and says, ''He was hilarious.'' A few weeks later, on Nov. 25, Downey was
arrested in his hotel room. If Downey avoids prison this time, Toback says,
he'll be back at work, even if insurance companies charge a higher premium
to guarantee him.

"There is no other actor or actress whom other actors want to work with
more. None. I was talking with Matt (Damon), and he knew the Downey-(Mike)
Tyson scene (from Black and White) by heart."

Toback himself quit drugs after "flipping out" on LSD at Harvard. He is
finishing Harvard Man, a movie that "deals with both the ecstasy and
excruciating agony of going insane under LSD. It's the first hip anti-drug
movie ever made." It features Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eric Stoltz.

VIPs: Traffic is getting lots of traffic. Patti Hansen went to a New York
screening hosted by Mike Nichols, went home and raved to hubby Keith
Richards. He checked out the drug-war saga at Sunday's screening and
reception hosted by publisher Jann Wenner. Long a proponent of legalized
drugs, Wenner calls the movie "imaginative and powerful. It makes drug use
look extremely unattractive. . . . The message is that the drug war is
cruel, expensive and unwinnable." Richards was spotted in a lengthy chat
with Yoko Ono. Reception guests also included Carson Daly and Tara Reid,
Patty Smyth, Lee Grant and Milos Forman, as well as Traffic stars Michael
Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio Del Toro. (It opens Dec. 27 on
both coasts, goes wide in January.)