Tawny Kitaen enters drug rehab for cocaine

updated 8:00 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2006

Actress Tawny Kitaen, best known as the star of a series of 1980s heavy metal videos, has entered a drug rehabilitation program to resolve cocaine possession charges, her lawyer said Monday.

Kitaen, 45, was facing a possible three years in prison on the felony charge of possessing 15 grams of cocaine but entered a six-month drug rehab program last week, lawyer Blair Berk told reporters.

Kitaen appeared in Orange County Superior Court last week, ahead of Monday’s scheduled arraignment, and won a “deferred entry of judgment,” Berk said. If she fails to comply with the terms of agreement she could be automatically convicted.

Prosecutors have said police were summoned in May to the home Kitaen shares with her two children in San Juan Capistrano, California, and discovered 15 grams of cocaine.

Kitaen, who starred alongside Tom Hanks in the 1984 film “Bachelor Party” and has made a number of TV appearances, may be best known for writhing on the hood of a car in a music video for the band Whitesnake at the height of heavy metal’s mid-1980s popularity.

The actress, who once dated former football star O.J. Simpson, also made headlines when she was arrested in 2002 for attacking her then-husband, major league baseball pitcher Chuck Finley, with her fists and high heels.

The couple later divorced and the charges were dismissed after Kitaen agreed to attend counseling.

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