Actor Robert Downey Jr. was back on the set of Ally McBeal Tuesday November 28th, after a weekend drug arrest, but one of his cast mates may have been the tipster behind the hotel bust, reported Fox online.
Police arrested the 35-year-old actor Saturday at the Merv Griffin Resort in Palm Springs after a man called 911 and gave the room number of "a man that has an ounce of cocaine and a couple of guns [who] is pretty upset."
A source told the New York Post it was almost as if Downey wanted to get caught by cops, since he'd been told beforehand that the police were on their way and didn't run. Downey was found with five grams of cocaine and methamphetamine, but no guns.
The source said the tipster was likely a worried co-worker.
The star's spokesman downplayed the incident. "He's busy working," said Downey's rep, Alan Nierob. "He's concentrating on work and himself.
"He's a recovering addict. Recovering addicts have relapses. He's working hard at his sobriety as he has for the last 18 months."
In a bizarre twist, a hotel surveillance video shows Downey walking down a hallway earlier with a blond woman dressed in a Wonder Woman outfit. The costume was later found in his hotel room.
In an interview with TV's Access Hollywood, a woman who said she was with Downey before his arrest said the star was suffering from the holiday blues, upset at being estranged from his director dad Robert Downey and missing his 7-year-old son.
"He was really down most of the time," said Laura Burnett, who met Downey several days before at a club where she works. Burnett said she believed the 911 caller "was just somebody who knew [Downey] was there and wanted to make a big ordeal about it."
She said she never saw Downey do drugs.
As the new love interest for Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart, Downey had completed eight planned episodes and was signed to do two more after viewers and television critics agreed he was a boost to the 4-year-old series.
Fox was supportive, but pragmatic, in addressing the issue. "We certainly hope he'll be part of it (the show) and if he is that will be wonderful, and if not we have Anne Heche coming in for three episodes" as a guest star, said Gail Berman, Fox's programming chief.
"We certainly have our wishes and prayers with him but we have a television show to produce," Berman told a telephone news conference.
Downey is due back in court Dec. 27, where he faces up to six years in prison. He was released from prison in August after spending a year behind bars for violating parole on drug charges. Before that, he'd been in and out of treatment programs and jail.
Downey's commitment to begin filming American Sweethearts in January would prevent him from continuing with Ally McBeal at this time, Nierob said. The publicist declined to predict whether Downey's legal problems would interfere with the film or with a planned starring role in Mel Gibson's Los Angeles production of Hamlet. – Albawaba.com.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
