At the season's start, Ally McBeal grabbed a bushel of attention by announcing that Robert Downey Jr. would be joining the cast to play Ally's love interest -- his first role since his highly publicized release from prison. A few weeks later, the show again grabbed headlines when Anne Heche -- fresh from her break-up and consequent breakdown -- landed a guest spot. Cynics might interpret this eagerness to employ scandalized stars as a cheap and transparent attempt to energize a flagging show. But we at Fametracker would like to set the record straight: these casting decisions are actually part of Ally McBeal's long and established tradition of helping fallen celebs get back on their feet. Here, a look back at the show's history as Hollywood's halfway house.

Christian Slater, 1997

Troubles: Slater is arrested and charged with assault and battery after punching his ex-girlfriend, biting a man in the abdomen who tried to intercede, then attacking a police officer.

Outcome: In the subsequent season premiere of Ally McBeal, Slater guest stars as psychotherapist Simon Farr, a dashing doctor Ally starts visiting for counseling. After several increasingly steamy sessions, in which Ally struggles to convince Simon to join her "on the couch," Farr attempts to stab Ally while dressed as a nun. Ally's saved when Billy (Gil Bellows) intrudes in a jealous rage and drops Farr with one punch. Cartoon birds swirl around Farr's head. Billy points out to Ally that the diploma on Farr's wall actually reads "psycho-the-rapist." Ally envisions Billy with big cartoon muscles, like Popeye.

Margot Kidder, 1996

Troubles: Kidder is found cowering in the backyard bushes of a private home belonging to strangers. She had cut off her hair with a razor blade, was missing teeth, and was ranting about being followed.

Outcome: During a sweeps week episode of Ally McBeal, Kidder co-stars as tough-as-nails D.A. Dominica Ballbrucker. John (Peter MacNicol) is so intimidated by the prospect of facing "The Ball Breaker" in court, that he becomes impotent and can't have sex for a month. Ally mysteriously hears "Africa" by Toto every time Dominica enters the court room, and fantasizes about giving birth to a dancing terrier, voiced by Barry White. Dominica ends up sleeping with Richard, and is later killed in a train derailment.

Hugh Grant, 1995

Troubles: Grant is arrested after being caught by police receiving an oral sex act from a prostitute, Divine Brown.

Outcome: In the week following his infamous appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Grant guest stars on Ally McBeal as dashing British diplomat Sir Henry Farthing, whom Ally represents in a sodomy case in which Farthing is claiming diplomatic immunity. Ally and Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) compete for Farthing's affections, before making sudsy love to each other in a car wash. Ally drops the case after Renee (Lisa Nicole Carson) sleeps with Farthing, only to discover that, at the moment of climax, he screams out -- in an American accent! Turns out he wasn't British after all. The episode ends with the entire cast singing "Nevermind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore.

David Foster, 1992

Troubles: Entertainer Ben Vereen is critically injured when he's struck by a car driven by Foster near Malibu, California. Vereen was walking along the Pacific Coast Highway when he was hit. No charges were filed against Foster.

Outcome: Foster has a brief cameo in the Ally McBeal Christmas special, as down-on-his-luck piano man Tucker Fox. Fox is completely ignored by the entire cast, and eventually wanders off set.

Johnny Paycheck, 1989

Troubles: Twelve years after the success of his anthem for the working man, "Take This Job and Shove It," Johnny Paycheck, né Donald Eugene Lytle, is sentenced to prison for shooting a man in a barroom brawl in Hillsboro, Ohio. He's released two years later.

Outcome: Paycheck spent two seasons as Sheriff Courtly Bender on the The All-New Ally McBeal Hour-and-a-Half, a ninety-minute version of Ally McBeal that David E. Kelley created by editing together segments of previous Ally McBeal episodes selected randomly by a focus group of teenaged Chinese chess grandmasters. Bender, who never appeared in the original episodes, was inserted through complicated bluescreening; as such, he was unable to interact with the other characters and was limited to exaggerated reactions to their hilarious and offbeat antics. Paycheck was nominated for an Emmy™ in his second season, but lost to John Larroquette.

Fatty Arbuckle, 1921

Troubles: Following a Labor Day weekend party thrown at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco by Arbuckle to celebrate a million-dollar contract with Paramount, starlet and call girl Virginia Rappe dies from an apparent attack of peritonitis. The yellow press speculates that her death resulted from Arbuckle's violently raping her. He is later acquitted of all charges.

Outcome: Following his third trial, Arbuckle, his career in ruins, is invited by David E. Kelley to join the cast of the popular radio show Amos and Ally, in the role of corpulent but kindly divorce lawyer Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins. Ally quickly develops a crush on Dawkins, and she repeatedly describes to the listeners that she's envisioning him as a giant zeppelin ramming into her and bursting into flames. Ling Woo (Lucy Liu) later seduces Dawkins, and during their vigorous lovemaking, he dies of a coronary (a fate that many radio critics decry as a cruel reference to Arbuckle's real-life woes). In the season finale, the cast invents breakdancing, through pure improvisation.