Robert Downey Jr.’s ‘Saturday Night’ Out

Robert Downey Jr. didn’t waste time making light of his arrests last summer stemming from his problems with cocaine and heroin as he bounded on stage Saturday to host NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

“I did have a really interesting summer,” said Downey with a sly smile during his opening monologue. The actor then proceeded to show “slides of his summer vacation,” where he appeared in orange prison jumpsuits in several shots.

The show marked Downey’s first public performance since his arrest. The 31-year-old actor, who has undergone about three months of court-ordered drug rehabilitation, was sentenced last week to three months’ probation and another three months at a live-in treatment center.

Though he is living in the treatment facility, Downey’s attorney Charles English said that Malibu Municipal Court Judge Lawrence Mira allowed the actor to fly to New York for the taping of “Saturday Night Live”--with certain stipulations--because employment is encouraged during this phase of the rehabilitation program.

“We presented it to him and the judge authorized the employment,” English said. “He’s going there with very specific conditions: He has to do drug tests daily, he has to go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings and he has a drug counselor with him full time.”

English said that Mira approved Downey’s motion also because the actor is no longer in the lock-down phase of the program.

The actor, who was in the 1985-86 cast of “SNL,” took several good-natured pokes at himself and his drug use, particularly in one sketch where he and cast member Norm MacDonald played detectives in a parody of ‘70s cops shows. During the skit, the two officers discovered a bag of heroin in a hotel room.

Downey launched into an anti-drug diatribe while hanging on to the bag: “In my book, if you do drugs, you go to jail and you stay there. You don’t go to some cushy rehab center and take a week off to host some comedy show.”