THE LONG, SLOW SLIDE OF ROBERT DOWNEY JR. HOLLYWOOD IS TOO MUCH FOR
ACTOR, UNCLE SAYS

Robert Downey Jr. left prison Aug. 2. Two days later he sat with his
Hollywood agents, tossing around ideas for his future. There were
movie offers and something more immediate: a chance to do a recurring
guest turn on the Fox series Ally McBeal. It seemed like a good way
to ease back into work, to establish a routine, to stay off drugs.
But was it?

At least one person close to Downey thinks the pressure on the actor
may have been too much, too soon.

''It was not enough time for him to settle down and gather his
strength,'' says Jim Downey, Robert's uncle. ''He was coming off a
horrendously intense period, getting out of jail and doing Ally.''

In the midst of his acclaimed stint on the show, Downey is facing
drug possession charges, more prison time and questions about his
bankability as an actor, despite his indisputable talent.

On Tuesday, two days after posting bail in Palm Springs, Calif., he
was back on the Ally set, resuming work on his ninth episode and
staying in close contact with his drug counselors.

Fox executives have enough faith in Downey -- or are pleased enough
with the boost in ratings he has brought the show -- to give him
another chance.

But Downey's uncle says Hollywood -- with its demanding agents,
studios and producers -- is ''the cruelest taskmaster of all,'' a
pressure cooker for someone trying to stay clean. ''If you're as
sensitive and fragile as Robert is,'' says Downey, a writer based in
Connecticut, ''it's a setup for disaster.''

Financially, Downey may not have had much choice. Thanks to years of
extravagant spending, legal bills and time spent in jail and rehab,
the actor is broke. He lost his Malibu home, his Range Rover and his
wife. He likely is making about $100,000 per Ally episode, with a
contract for 10 shows.

Reports from the Ally set before Downey's drug arrest Saturday night
were of an upbeat cast pleased with the chemistry between star
Calista Flockhart and Downey, who plays a lawyer and Ally's latest
love interest. But while on a four-day break from the show over
Thanksgiving, Downey checked into Merv Griffin's Resort Hotel &
Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, where he kept a low profile until an
anonymous male 911 caller told police there were drugs and guns in
the actor's suite.

Police allegedly found 4.8 grams of cocaine and methamphetamine but
no guns. Downey surrendered peacefully, although not without telling
police: ''Don't do this to me. You're going to ruin my life,''
according to Palm Springs' Desert Sun newspaper. He spent the night
in a familiar place -- jail -- and posted $15,000 bail Sunday morning.

Downey's uncle shrugs off suggestions that loneliness or separation
from his 7-year-old son, Indio, led the actor to resume old habits
over the holiday. ''Our family isn't famous for Norman Rockwell
Thanksgivings,'' Jim Downey said. ''He wasn't sitting alone with a
Colonel Sanders chicken breast in front of him, saying, 'I'm going to
go and get some drugs.' ''

But Laura Burnett of Palm Springs told Access Hollywood that she was
in Downey's room Thursday and Friday and that he seemed sad to be
spending the holiday alone. When police arrived Saturday night, no
one was with the actor. One of the more bizarre aspects of the case
was a comment police made on TV that a Wonder Woman costume had been
found in the room.

The possibility of going back behind bars after a year in
California's Corcoran State Prison hasn't been a deterrent. In
October's Details magazine, Downey said he wanted to stay drug-free
but wasn't afraid of going back to prison: ''The threat of prison has
been eliminated for me. I know I can do time now.''

Downey apparently had tried to stay straight since his release from
Corcoran. Those close to him say there were no signs of a relapse
before Thanksgiving weekend.

''Sobriety was the priority, and it continues to be,'' says his
publicist, Alan Nierob. ''He works on his sobriety and sees his kid.
That's really been his life.'' Downey is separated from his wife,
Debbie Falconer.

Dad Supplied First Joint

Downey, who kept his sense of humor even in prison, has not denied
that he has a drug problem.

''It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the
trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal,'' Downey told Malibu
Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira, who in August 1999 sent the actor to
prison ''to save his life.''

The 35-year-old actor had his first joint at the tender age of 6, and
it was given to him by his father, independent filmmaker Robert
Downey Sr. The family was nomadic, part of the counterculture.

''It was the times,'' says Jim Downey, defending his brother. ''No
one, including Bobby, blames him.''

As Downey grew up and became a teenager, he drank and used drugs. He
was using when he made the 1987 film Less Than Zero, in which he
played Julian, a cocaine addict.

His seven-year relationship with actress Sarah Jessica Parker, whom
he met in 1984 while filming Firstborn, fell victim to his excesses.
But Downey kept working and even won an Oscar nomination for the 1992
biopic Chaplin.

By 1996, things were falling apart. In June, police stopped his Ford
Explorer in Los Angeles and found cocaine, heroin and a .357-caliber
Magnum. Soon after, he staggered into a neighbor's home in Malibu and
passed out on an empty bed. Three days later, he was busted for
leaving a treatment center. He was sentenced to three years'
probation. In 1997 and '98, he spent 113 days in the Los Angeles
County Jail for violating probation. In 1999 was sentenced to
Corcoran on the same offense.

In an interview from prison with NBC's Today show in July, he
described the power of his addiction. ''I had a really serious, sick
love affair with cocaine,'' he said. ''And like a friend of mine who
put it behind him said, he calls cocaine 'the lady,' and he said the
only way you can respect the lady is to stop seeing her altogether.
And that was always difficult to me because breaking up is hard to
do.''

His friends in Hollywood argued that Downey didn't deserve to go to
jail, that what he needed was help, despite repeated stints in rehab.
But in Corcoran he was placed in the prison's Substance Abuse
Treatment Center, and now he is under the care of Walden House, a
California treatment program.

Most of Hollywood is being mum, at least publicly, on Downey's latest travails.

He's Still In Demand

It seems likely that Hollywood will continue to give Downey roles,
unless he is sentenced to more jail time. He is due in court Dec. 27
on the Palm Springs charges, which carry a possible prison sentence
of at least three years.

Fox executives said Tuesday that they're happy Downey is back at work
on Ally McBeal, and they wish him the best. But they made it clear
that the show will go on with or without him. ''We have a TV show to
produce,'' said Fox Entertainment president Gail Berman.

Downey's agents at International Creative Management, Ed Limato and
Nick Styne, were bombarded with dozens of offers for Downey after he
left prison in August.

''He was in demand and will continue to be in demand as long as he's
available,'' Nierob says.

He is signed to begin filming America's Sweethearts, directed by Joe
Roth, in January. ''The man happens to be a gifted actor, but he also
has a problem,'' says Tom Sherak, a partner with Roth in Revolution
Studios. ''He came out of jail and got two jobs. He was given a
second chance. The next chance is up to him.''

But if Downey's uncle, a recovering alcoholic, had his way, his
nephew would leave the temptations of Hollywood behind. ''If I could
snap my fingers, I'd love to pull him out of Hollywood long enough
for him to get out from underneath that artificiality, where people
aren't demanding things from him.''