
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990                   TAG: 9004040338
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Christian Slater, who appeared in "Heathers" and "The Wizard," pleaded no contest to his second drunken driving charge in a year and was sentenced in Beverly Hills to 10 days in jail.

The 20-year-old actor also was placed Monday on five years' probation, lost his driver's license for 18 months and was ordered to pay nearly $1,400 in fines and penalties.

Slater was arrested Dec. 29 after he led deputies on a chase that began when they spotted his car going 50 mph in a 35 mph zone and ended with the car crashing into two utility poles.

Slater jumped out, ran and was climbing a fence when a deputy dragged him down, getting kicked in the face by Slater's cowboy boots, authorities said.

\ Melissa Gilbert, "Little House on the Prairie" star, says her life is wonderful since her husband, actor-screenwriter Bo Brinkman, has received help for alcohol abuse.

"Our marriage counselor saved our lives and our marriage," the 25-year-old Gilbert said in the April 7 issue of TV Guide. "We couldn't live apart anymore."

Gilbert, whose teen-age romance with actor Rob Lowe was the stuff of tabloid columns, had been living apart from Brinkman since he became drunk and flew into a rage last year in Hong Kong where she was filming a TV movie, she said.

by CNB