DOWNEY FREED FROM PRISON

A California appeals court yesterday freed actor Robert Downey Jr. from a
prison where he was serving a three-year sentence for drug possession that
halted his Hollywood career. A state prison spokesperson said Downey was
released just hours after the court ruled that Superior Court Judge
Lawrence Mira, who sentenced the Oscar-nominated star of Chaplin in August
of 1999, failed to take into account some 323 days that he had already
served in a lock-down drug rehabilitation facility. Mira ordered Downey,
35, to spend three years behind bars for violating probation on a 1996
cocaine possession charge by repeatedly missing drug tests. He was eligible
for parole in November.