ACTOR ROBERT DOWNEY JR. GETS THREE-YEAR JAIL TERM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey Jr., who says he
has been hooked on drugs since age 8, was sentenced Thursday to three years
in jail for repeatedly violating his parole on drug charges.

An angry Malibu Municipal Court Judge Lawrence Mira ordered the 34-year-old
Downey to serve three years behind bars, rejecting pleas from the
high-profile actor's lawyer and a probation report recommending that he not
be jailed.

``I don't believe your client is committed to not using drugs. You may call
that addiction. But there is some level of choice,'' Mira told Downey's
latest celebrity lawyer, Robert Shapiro, after noting that the actor had
been in and flunked seven different drug treatment programs since his
original arrest in June 1996.

Mira gave Downey credit for 201 days of jail time served since his arrest
and that, coupled with time off for good behavior, could mean that the actor
might be out of jail in a year and a day.

Shapiro, who assembled the ``dream team'' of lawyers that successfully
defended O.J. Simpson against charges that he murdered his ex-wife and her
friend, argued that Downey was now a changed man and deserved a break.

``He is demonstrating an attitude that he never has had. He is positive,''
Shapiro said.

But Downey, the Oscar-nominated star of ``Chaplin,'' himself told the court
of the difficulties he has had in giving up cocaine and heroin.

Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, he told Judge Mira: ''It's like I've got
a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste
of the gun metal.''

Explaining why the threat of jail has not stopped him from using drugs, he
said, ``When someone points a gun at me they're just interrupting my
business.''

Downey was found guilty of drugs and weapons possession in June 1996 after
police stopped him for speeding and found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in
his pickup truck.

A month later, he wandered into a stranger's home and passed out on a bed.

Downey has spent the last 45 days in a lock-down drug treatment program.
Court-appointed psychiatrists who examined him recommended that he complete
the program and not serve an extended period in jail.

The actor once said he had been addicted to drugs since he was 8 years old
and that his filmmaker father, Robert Sr., 63, introduced him to pot.

Despite his problems, Downey has three films coming out this year.