how to pass a drug test: Back in the Game..Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr....

Cannes, France - Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr. thinks he's finally back in the game after struggling with the demons of drugs and alcohol during the past decade.

He strides into an interview room at teh Hotel du Cap, overlooking teh Riviera, while smoking a big cigar and wearing a broad, quirky smile.

"You're not in the game unless you think you're in things that are good," he says. "You have to take a modicum of pride in what you're doing." And Mr. Downey clearly thinks his latest movie, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, is worthy of pride.

"I think you're always getting better or getting worse," he says, "and I think I'm in a better zone."

Directed by Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black and co-starring Val Kilmer, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang reformulates the buddy-cop genre by pairing an aspiring, screwed-up actor (Mr. Downey) with a gay detective (Mr. Kilmer).

As the clueless Harry Lockhart, Mr. Downey brings a fine comic sensibility to his performance. But it still isn't clear that the 40-year-old star has shaken his demons.

THE DARK SIDE

Mr. Downey clearly wants to make it look like he has his darker side under control, and you can't help rooting for the likable guy.

"I'm meditating, eating better and hardly smoking at all," he says. Then he pauses, looks at his cigar and stows it in a nearby ashtray.

Oops.

As for his troubled past, he says, he isn't that different from a lot of people in Hollywood who have had drug and alcohol problems "but didn't get caught." He's probably right, of course. But this comment doesn't sound like it's coming from someone who has been jailed and successfully completed rehab.

And when a fellow critic says that most people are rooting for him, he says he finds such attitudes "a little condescending." Then he backtracks, trying to explain that some people project their own problems onto others.

A NEW BUDDY

Whatever the case, Mr. Kilmer says he has become good buddies with Mr. Downey. As he walks up to a table where Mr. Downey is sitting, he plants a big wet kiss on Mr. Downey's cheek. "Hey, I'm gay!" Mr. Kilmer jokes, referring to his movie character.

As for real life off the set, Mr. Kilmer seems well aware that he, too, has a bad-boy reputation - and that their reputations posed a challenge for first-time director Black.

Mr. Kilmer says that part of his reputation stems from the fact that he used to hate the Hollywood culture. The star, who lives with his family in Pecos, N.M., says he has come to terms with the dog-eat-dog business, even though he doesn't want to live in it.

Still, Mr. Kilmer draws a big distinction between himself and Mr. Downey. "Robert actually did bad things," he says with a smile. "I just got accused of doing bad things."

So even if Mr. Downey seems defensive about his past, he at least has a new friend who doesn't pull punches.

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