Bad Weekend in Palm Springs

Cathedral City lies 120 miles east of Los Angeles, in the heart of the Coachella Valley, a vast oblivion of sand, irrigation projects, golf courses, cinder-block resort motels and desert suburban developments. It was here in a strip club called Showgirls, in a minimall next to a head shop, that Robert Downey Jr. came in at about nine o'clock last Thanksgiving. Dressed in a beat-up blue corduroy Nike cap, a rumpled jacket, baggy black pants and white sneakers, Downey blended in with the few customers in the club. Within minutes, one of the dancers recognized him, and before long his table was surrounded by fans. Among the autograph seekers was a young woman named Kiley Ridge. Though she had just turned twenty-one a few days earlier, Kiley had briefly worked at the club as a cocktail waitress. She had come into Showgirls that night with her thirty-three-year-old brother, Mike, to pick up her final paycheck.

Before going out to the club, Kiley had changed out of the skirt and stockings she'd worn earlier that evening at Thanksgiving dinner with her mother and brother. She was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, and her strawberry-blond hair was styled with almost ironed-looking bangs that had earned her the nickname Dharma, after the TV character with a similar hairstyle.

Kiley pushed through the cluster of fans buzzing around Downey, leaned her face close to his so their eyes were level and said, "Excuse me? Mr. Robert Downey Jr.?" She then asked for two autographs, for her and her brother. When Downey handed them to her, she swiped the Nike cap off his head and put it on. Kiley is a pretty girl. Nearly five feet ten, with a thin yet shapely figure, she has blue eyes and freckles that make her appear slightly younger than her years. For whatever reason, she says, Downey looked at her and said, "I want to leave with you right now."

All Kiley could think about were her unshaved legs. "I was like, 'Oh, my God! Robert Downey Jr. wants to leave with me, and I forgot to shave my legs.' " Today, Kiley has far more serious matters on her mind. She feels "really, really bad" that Robert Downey Jr. is possibly facing almost five years in prison, more or less as a result of meeting her.