Downey Jr. Will Be Making Use of ‘Ally’s’ Law Firm

Just a week after being released from Corcoran State Prison, Robert Downey Jr. has cut a deal that will find him standing next to a lawyer again--only this time, one of the fictional variety, as the actor takes a significant part on the Fox series “Ally McBeal.”

Downey--an Oscar-nominated film actor, who spent a year in prison for cocaine possession and subsequent violations of his probation--will appear in at least eight episodes of the program as a romantic interest for the title character, played by Calista Flockhart. Production will begin in the next few weeks, with Downey to be featured starting with the season’s first episode.

Downey, 35, was released Aug. 2 on $5,000 bail. His attorney said at a press conference last week that the actor was ready to work and has enrolled in a drug rehab program. He is also receiving daily counseling.

In a statement issued by the production company, 20th Century Fox Television, “Ally” creator David E. Kelley said he was “thrilled” to add Downey to the show and has “admired his work for years.” The company describes Downey’s character as “a mysterious stranger with a knack for understanding Ally.”

The casting clearly will garner extra attention for “Ally McBeal,” which, after becoming the first one-hour show to win the Emmy Award as outstanding comedy series in 1999, was overlooked in this year’s nominations. Fox executives have acknowledged that the show may have taken too many “flights of fancy” last season and that Kelley intended to make the program more grounded and emotional during its fourth year, which begins Oct. 23.

Downey’s legal troubles date back to his arrest in June 1996 for possession of cocaine, heroin and a pistol. Two weeks later, the actor was arrested again after entering a neighbor’s house under the influence of drugs.

Fox declined comment beyond the press release, which quoted Downey as saying that he welcomed once again having “a choice of shirt colors.” A spokesman for Downey would only say that the actor will spend the next few months on the Fox series--which features Flockhart as a slightly neurotic attorney surrounded by an equally eccentric group of characters--before seeking new film roles.

In addition to his Academy Award-nominated performance in the biographical film “Chaplin” (1992), Downey’s credits include “Less Than Zero”--in which he played a drug-addicted youth--and “U.S. Marshals” (1998), a sequel to “The Fugitive.”

Warner Bros., as the distributor of “U.S. Marshals,” obtained a six-figure insurance policy--referred to as “lock-down and incarceration” coverage--as protection in case Downey was incarcerated again, disrupting production. Before filming began in 1997, sources told The Times that Downey agreed to undergo random drug tests while the film was being shot.

Fox would not comment on whether the studio would employ any similar safeguards in relation to Downey’s role on “Ally McBeal.”