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Drunk driving actor Kiefer Sutherland will serve 48 days in jail. PHOTO: EPA

Kiefer Sutherland, star of the hit television series 24, should be cut from Canadian TV ads promoting Ford vehicles after his second drunk driving conviction, an advocacy group said on Friday.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada is demanding Ford Motor Company of Canada pull ads in which Sutherland does the voice-over.

"Ford Motor Company has a wonderful opportunity to send Mr Sutherland a fairly strong message," said Andrew Murie, chief executive of MADD Canada.

"There should never be an excuse, when you can afford your own driver or your own limousine, to ever get into this situation. It astounds me that Mr Sutherland would ever put himself in this position."

Sutherland, a Canadian and the son of actor Donald Sutherland, has been in a California prison since Wednesday, sentenced to 48 days in jail for drunk driving.

He was arrested in September, when he was still on probation for a 2004 drunk driving offense. He pleaded no contest in October.

Ford of Canada has not pulled the Sutherland ads. In a statement e-mailed on Friday, it called drunk driving a "very serious offense."

Daniel Baldwin is staying away from the long arm of the law. PHOTO: AP

Another hard-living actor, Daniel Baldwin, is also looking at some hard time. A judge has revoked probation and issued an arrest warrant for the 47-year-old after he failed to appear in court for a progress report on his drug rehabilitation stemming from an arrest last year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Millington issued the warrant after the actor failed to show up in court as scheduled on Friday morning, according to court papers.

Baldwin is the brother of actors Alec, William and Stephen Baldwin and has starred on numerous television shows, including Homicide: Life on the Street, and in movies.

He ran afoul of authorities in April 2006 when he was arrested in a Los Angeles-area motel for possessing cocaine and drug paraphernalia.

Baldwin entered a drug rehabilitation program in hopes of having the two charges dismissed.

Meanwhile, Barbara Walters, famed for celebrity television interviews that often draw on-screen tears, says she's tired of rehab stories, celebrity news and the tabloid trend she helped create.

Walters, a pioneering journalist who became the first female US network news anchor 30 years ago, has interviewed every US president since Richard Nixon and other heads of state. More recently, she has been credited and criticized for soft interviews that elevated celebrity news above all else.

Now, before her annual show, The 10 Most Fascinating People, airing on the ABC network Thursday, the 78-year-old television journalist said she wants to focus on other topics.

"I am not going after the tabloid stuff, I don't do it," she said in an interview.

She said her latest special did not consider Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, abandoning the "week in, week out, competition for getting the next name, the next person out of rehab."

Instead, expect to see former US president Bill Clinton, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, two founders of the Internet network MySpace.com, and controversial radio host Don Imus.

After years of chasing exclusives on her old ABC newsmagazine show 20/20, Walters says she is tired of trying to compete with the tide of celebrity news.

"It's a different climate now and 20/20 and the other magazines are focused on the big celebrities. I didn't want to keep doing that, I have been doing it for years."

Walters, whose interviews with Michael Jackson and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky drew huge audiences, makes no apologies for the "personality journalism" she forged.

"The world has changed and you watch every program now and there are even interviews with heads of state where there is more interest in their personality and their background," she said.

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