Downey Dumped

Robert Downey Jr has had to walk away from Woody Allen's latest project due to the film's spiralling insurance premiums. A result of Downey's, shall we say, somewhat hedonistic past and regular brushes with the law, the actor tends to make insurance companies sweat whenever his name is attached to a project. While this didn't prove a prohibitive problem on The Singing Detective or Gothika, Fox was unable to wangle an acceptable figure for Allen's low-budget picture and have been forced to drop Downey altogether. Something of an irritation, we're sure you'll agree but, after numerous arrests, a prison term and subsequent re-arrested on fresh drugs charges not three months after his release, you can kind of understand an insurance company having reservations about covering one of his films without demanding a king's ransom upfront. All is not lost however because American Pie star Jason Biggs, who also appears in Allen's Anything Else, is currently being courted to replace him.