LOS ANGELES (Reuters  Wed Apr 26) - Actress Michelle Rodriguez, one of the stars of the TV series "Lost," was sentenced to five days in a Hawaii jail on Wednesday after she was found guilty of drunken driving, a court official said.

Rodriguez, 27, opted for jail after turning down Kaneohe District Judge James Dannenberg's offer to perform community service.

She was taken to Oahu Community Correctional Centre, where she will likely serve the full five days, the official said. He described her as "chipper but probably nervous."

She was also fined $162.

Rodriguez and her "Lost" co-star     Cynthia Watros were arrested in separate incidents within minutes of each other last December on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Watros, 37, pleaded guilty in January, was fined $370 and lost her licence for 90 days. Rodriguez opted to stand trial. "Lost" is filmed in Hawaii.

In 2004, she pleaded no contest to three traffic offenses in Los Angeles, including hit-and-run and drunken driving, and was given three years' probation. The Los Angeles City Attorney is reportedly seeking to have the probation revoked, a move that could send Rodriguez to jail for more than 16 months.

Messages left with her publicist were not returned.

The feisty actress won acclaim for her performance as a young pugilist in the 2000 film "Girlfight." She went on to star in such films as "The Fast and the Furious" and "Blue Crush" before landing the role of police officer Ana Lucia Cortez on "Lost," which revolves around a group of survivors of an air crash on a mysterious island.

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Rodriguez Blames Steroids for Bad Behavior

Lost star Michelle Rodriguez has blamed her drink driving and subsequent bad behavior on her use of steroids. The star was sentenced to serve five days in a Hawaiian jail Tuesday, after pleading guilty to a drink driving charge.

The actress insisted in court the steroid injections she had been taking twice monthly to treat allergies to "dust and cockroach resin" made her "manic." She developed the allergies upon arriving in Hawaii last year, where she films her hit TV show.

During her December arrest for drink driving in Hawaii, she screamed and yelled at officers, at one point daring them to "put a gun to my head and shoot me." She had to be carried into the police station because she sat down in the station garage and refused to stand up, according to a police source.

She said in court, "I wasn't right in my head. None of that verbal behavior was directed towards them. It was directed towards myself." About her arrest, she said, "I personally am thankful that I was stopped because of the fact that I didn't acknowledge my own behavior and how sporadic it was until all hell broke loose in my life."

While in court, Rodriguez also asked the judge to take into consideration that she only got her driver's license seven years ago, so she could do a "car racing movie" and that "all of my driving experience started and was acquired from a car racing school." The actress claims she's "lost everything" because of her drunken driving arrest and had to sell her house and car to help pay for legal costs.

When asked why she chose jail time over 240 hours of community service, she said, "I kind of have to go back to my life, go back to making some money. This sort of gave me a hard hit." 

[imdb.com 27 Apr 2006]