Lost star begins prison sentence

Michelle Rodriguez is due to film James Cameron's new movie Avatar

Former Lost actress Michelle Rodriguez has begun a six-month jail sentence for violating probation stemming from a string of driving offences.

The star, who played Ana-Lucia in the hit TV drama, reported to a Los Angeles County jail on Sunday.

Reports said she was booked into the Century Regional Detention Facility, where Paris Hilton served much of her sentence earlier this year.

Rodriguez was given her 180-day sentence in October.

She had admitted violating her probation by failing to provide proof of community service and by drinking alcohol while wearing a monitoring device.

The actress, who also appeared in The Fast and the Furious and Resident Evil, has been cast in James Cameron's new science fiction adventure Avatar alongside Sigourney Weaver. The film is due out in December 2009.

A message on Rodriguez's official website, dated 23 December, thanked fans for their "love and support" but did not mention that she had begun her sentence.

An earlier post confirmed she would "turn herself in to serve her time at the end of the year".

In 2004, the actress pleaded no contest to three offences, including hit-and-run and drink-driving, in Los Angeles.

She was sentenced to two days in prison, ordered to perform community service and put on probation for three years.

She violated that probation the following year when she was arrested on another drink-driving charge in Hawaii.

On that occasion, she was sentenced to 60 days in jail, but served less than a day because of overcrowding.