By Allison Hope Weiner
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater is putting his Hollywood dreams on hold while he deals with the legal fallout from his infamous exit down a plane's emergency exit last month.
Slater appeared briefly in Queens Supreme Court Tuesday as lawyers for both sides negotiated a plea deal that would likely reduce the charges of trespassing, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. Those charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.
He is being evaluated "for participation in an alternative-sentencing program to address possible mental health, stress related, alcohol abuse and other issues," said Queens district attorney Richard Brown.
Slater is said to be fielding a slew of offers -- from book deals to his own reality show -- but he made no statements to the media on his way into the courthouse and remained silent during his appearance.
He became a working class hero in August when at the end of JetBlue flight and fed up with his job, he allegedly screamed obscenities into the plane's loudspeaker system, activated the emergency chute, grabbed two beers and slid down the chute to the tarmac.
Brown cautioned Slater and the media against downplaying the nature of the charges.
"I've been very much troubled by the fact that both the defendant and the media have been trivializing that which occurred," Brown said. "Deploying an emergency escape chute on an aircraft filled with passengers is no laughing matter."
Slater's attorney Daniel Horowitz and his celebrity publicist Howard Bragman appeared to get the district attorney's message.
Horowitz told reporters Tuesday that his client understands the seriousness of the charges, and Bragman said "there was a big disconnect between the rumors and the stories and the real Steven Slater."
"When all this first happened in August," Bragman told The Hollywood Reporter, "he was a regular citizen who suddenly had 50 reporters waiting outside his door for a statement, no publicist and a public defender as his attorney. He got really overwhelmed by the situation."
Bragman has refused to discuss any Hollywood-related projects in Slater's future until court proceedings are concluded.
"He has a great team in place now, including Daniel Horowitz, (David) Letterman's attorney (in last year's blackmail plot), and we're all taking this very seriously," Bragman said. "Let me give you an example: He was invited to go to the Emmy Awards with a huge celebrity. It would have generated enormous amounts of publicity, and we turned it down. We knew it wasn't the right thing to do despite it being a huge media opportunity."
Allan Mayer, a crisis manager guru for the likes of Brandy and Halle Berry, noted that "generally, when you're in a situation that involves criminal charges, you don't want to do things that annoy the judge and the prosecutor. So to the extent that Mr. Slater is being advised not to do that, he's getting good advice."
Slater is being evaluated for the alternative sentencing program and is scheduled to return to court October 19.
