Paramount PicturesEither Robert Downey Jr. figures he has plenty of living to go or he's just too busy these days in the wake of his monster Iron Man success.
Whatever the reason, the onetime Oscar nominee confirmed today that he is putting off plans to write a memoir for publisher HarperCollins that had originally been slated for release later this year.
"Yes, he's postponed it," Downey spokeswoman Britney Ross told E! News, declining to divulge an explanation for the delay.
Downey and his publisher announced the project in 2006, touting the book as "a candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career."
The 43-year-old thesp was expected to reflect on his acting career—from a one-season stint as a castmember on Saturday Night Live in the mid-'80s and second-banana parts in teen comedies like Weird Science and Back to School to roles in Air America, Natural Born Killers and Chaplin, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
But the meatiest part of the autobiography were expected to be his reflections on his troubled personal life, from his doomed love affair with Sarah Jessica Parker to his legendary struggles with substance abuse, which not only ruined his romance with Parker but derailed his career in the late '90s as he bounced from rehab to prison.
Things got so bad that the actor was dismissed from his Emmy-nominated role as Calista Flockhart's boyfriend in Fox's Ally McBeal at the end of 2000, and studios had trouble insuring him for movie work.
Clean and sober since 2001, Downey has bounced back big-time, with his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man becoming the biggest of his career. The comic-book flick has grossed $566 million worldwide, been greenlighted for a sequel and has catapulted Downey back onto the A-list.
Ben Stiller recently hailed Downey as a "genius" for his next turn, playing a white actor who dons blackface in the Hollywood-skewering Tropic Thunder, due out Aug. 13.
Aside from the Iron Man sequel, Downey is attached to star in the sci-fi western, Cowboys vs. Aliens and to play Sherlock Holmes in a new big-screen adventure.