SHOCKING NEW TWISTS IN DOWNEY DRUG SAGA

On Six-Week Coke Binge?

Bad-boy actor Robert Downey Jr. was getting high on drugs for six
weeks before his latest arrest - and even left his 7-year-old son one
night so he could go score with a dealer, a new report claims.

"He [was] getting loaded on and off," a source close to the star's
estranged wife, Deborah Falconer, tells next week's People magazine.

And Falconer is so furious at Downey, she's banned him from seeing
their son, Indio, until he's completely cleaned up, the mag says.

An allegedly coked-up Downey, 35, was busted last month in a Palm
Springs hotel - three months after being sprung from prison on a drug
rap and insisting he'd finally gone clean.

Now out on $15,000 bail, he faces a Dec. 27 probation hearing that
could land him back behind bars.

The actor's handlers insist he's a recovering drug addict who merely
"slipped" once - but People cites two sources who say Downey was back
to feeding his drug habit for at least six weeks, "and perhaps even
earlier."

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, during a weekend visit with his son,
"the actor left Indio at home with an assistant and darted off in the
middle of the night to score drugs," the mag says.

When the news got back to Falconer, she blew her top.

"[It] was like the final straw. She just said, 'Until you get a
certain amount of time clean [up], you can't see Indio,'" the source
close to Falconer said.

People reports that cops, who said they found cocaine and
methamphetamine at Downey's side when they busted him, listened as the
frantic star begged them not to take him in.

"Don't do this to me! You're going to ruin my life!" the actor said,
according to People.

Downey, charged with drug possession, being under the influence of a
controlled substance and committing a felony while free on bail, was
just getting his career back on track.

He had a highly visible role on the Fox series "Ally McBeal" and was
planning to star in a stage run of "Hamlet," to be directed by Mel
Gibson.

His drug hell became public in 1996, when he was stopped for speeding
and cops found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in his vehicle. A month
later, he was found passed out in a neighbor's home.

Three days after that, he was busted for leaving a drug-rehab center.
In August 1999, Downey got three years in the slammer for violating
his probation by missing drug tests.

He was released last summer on $5,000 bail after his Hollywood pals
demanded his freedom, insisting he was well again.

Downey earned an Oscar nomination for the acclaimed 1992 screen bio
"Chaplin."