BBC News Online: Entertainment

Actor McConaughey arrested

The 29-year-old star of films such as Amistad, Contact and A Time To Kill, was released on bail of $1,000 (£600) after a court hearing on Monday.

The actor was also arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana, but was not charged.

He could still face a year in prison if found guilty of resisting arrest.

Police were called to McConaughey's home after receiving a complaint about loud music from a neighbour.

Texas police officer Michael Olsen allegedly spotted the star through a window, dancing naked and playing bongo drums.

On entering the house, Olsen reported seeing parts of a marijuana plant and drug paraphernalia.

Olsen said that McConaughey initially refused to be taken to the county jail in a police car, but complied after a second officer arrived at the scene.

Matthew McConaughey was born and raised in Texas and lived briefly in Australia following high school.

He returned to attend film school at the University of Texas in Austin. He was discovered by director Richard Linklater in an Austin bar and cast in the cult 1993 film, Dazed and Confused.

The actor went on to play in a number of major films, including Joel Schumacher's 1996 version of the John Grisham novel, A Time To Kill, which went to number one in the US box office.

He went on to star with Jodie Foster in the alien thriller, Contact and alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman, in the Steven Spielberg slave-ship drama Amistad.

McConaughey's most recent film was the Ron Howard comedy, EdTV, in which he starred as a ordinary man whose life becomes the subject of a 24-hour television show.

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