DOWNEY'S DEFENDERS

Family and friends worried that a stay in the big house will not help
Robert Downey Jr.'s rehab efforts have set up an Internet campaign to set
Downey free.

Currently serving three years in a California state penitentiary for a 1996
parole violation, Downey's supporters have created a "Free Robert Downey
Jr." site. The site's mission? To ask visitors to support a campaign to
have the actor transferred to a lock-down rehabilitation center."I wanted
to stop," Downey is quoted on the homepage. "I really wanted to. Stopping
isn't hard.
Not starting is hard."

Featured is a letter written by Robert Downey Sr. to President Clinton
thanking him for any help he could give to the campaign. And a letter to
Judge Lawrence Mira sent by Downey's parents and family said, "While he is
not ready to be in society because of his destructive behavior, he is
likewise not ready to serve time in a state prison."

A letter to California's Governor Gray Davis pleas, "Please use your
influence to allow Robert to serve his sentence in a lock-down drug rehab."
Viewers wanting to jump on Downey's rehab wagon can print out a copy of the
letter themselves and send it by snail mail.

Will the letters work? Not likely. "Were not going to treat anyone
differently," Michael Bustamante, press secretary to Governor Davis, told
Newsweek.com. According to Bustamante, the governor has first-hand
experience of drug abuse in his own family, and has worked to help those
with addiction problems.

This year Davis put aside $22 million to be spent on drug programs in
jails. Sounds like perfect timing for Downey.