Stop the presses: Tom Sizemore's actually been behaving himself.
So says a Los Angeles judge, who decided Thursday that while the trouble-magnet actor still needs to spend another month in rehab, he's shown enough improvement to leave his live-in treatment center for acting gigs and to attend a charity event.
"This next month should prove to us that you're going to stay sober--clean and sober--and work at the same time," said Superior Court Judge Paula Adele Mabrey.
In July, Sizemore did a 180 from previous testimony and admitted a slew of probation violations. He said he used a gadget called the Whizzinator to fake drug tests and failed to submit to drug testing on eight other occasions. Mabrey in turn ordered him to check into rehab.
The 43-year-old Saving Private Ryan costar has spent the last 72 days in a residential drug-treatment facility in Pasadena.
Mabrey said she had received a report from Sizemore's doctors and it appeared "Mr. Sizemore has taken his treatment seriously."
Sizemore's lawyer, Michael Rovell, then requested that the actor be permitted to leave the center with a "sober companion" on occasion. "It is important for him to work," Rovell said.
The judge agreed but said Sizemore must immediately undergo a drug test upon his return.
Sizmore says he has several projects in the pipeline, including a reality show pilot called Super-Sizemore and a film shoot later this month. He also has made like Paris Hilton and is selling his own sex tapes online at xxxtom.com.
Attending Thursday's hearing were the actor's 7-week-old twin boys and their mother, Janelle McIntire, along with his mother, brother and other family members.
"I'm very, very proud to be a father," the actor told reports outside court. "I just want to put this very difficult time behind me...I just want to live a healthy, long life and be a good dad."
Mabrey set Sizemore's next hearing for Oct. 17. If Sizemore manages to keep himself clean, he may have his probation reinstated at that date. If he messes up, he could wind up in state prison for up to three years.
He is still facing an additional 17 months in the slammer and more rehab time for violating his probation in his 2003 conviction for attacking and harassing ex-girlfriend Heidi Fleiss. The judge in that case, Antonio Barreto Jr., had allowed Sizemore to remain free on bail pending an appeal.