DOWNEY DEAL: NO JAIL TIME

LOS ANGELES - Robert Downey Jr. will plead no contest tomorrow to drug
charges in a plea bargain that will allow him to continue live-in drug
treatment rather than face jail time.

Downey, 36, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role on the television
comedy "Ally McBeal," will appear in court in Indio, Calif., on charges
related to his Nov. 25 arrest in Palm Springs for cocaine use, his lawyers
confirmed.

Prosecutors and Downey's lawyers struck a deal last month, under which the
actor is expected to be sentenced to at least a year in the live- in
drug-treatment program and three years' probation.

Downey will plead no contest to a felony count of cocaine possession and a
misdemeanor count of being under the influence of the drug, his lawyers
have said.

Downey has been in a residential drug-rehabilitation program since a second
arrest, an April incident in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City. Police
arrested Downey in a back alley for suspected drug use, and he tested
positive for cocaine, but prosecutors decided not to bring charges.

Attorney James Epstein said Downey had been making "excellent" progress in
the drug-treatment program since then. Downey's earlier arrest at the Merv
Griffin resort in Palm Springs came about three months after he was freed
from a one-year prison stay in California and began a comeback on "Ally
McBeal" as Calista Flockhart's love interest.

His legal troubles cost him a role in the summer movie romance "America's
Sweethearts," starring Julia Roberts.

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