Woody Harrelson Punched A Guy In The Face Because He Wouldn’t Stop Taking Pictures Of Him And His Daughter
I know there’s such thing as the “Mama Bear,” which is generally believed to be a woman with children who turns aggressively ursine when their children are threatened. For some reason the term “Papa Bear” has always felt less ragey – it really gives off more of a chill, helpful, possibly herbally-relaxed dad vibe. Which is actually the perfect way to describe Woody Harrelson’s energy, usually. Except on Wednesday night, Woody went into Mama Bear mode at a rooftop bar in Washington, D.C., after a drunk bar patron refused to stop taking pictures of him and his daughter.
According to NBC Washington, this all went down at The Watergate Hotel a little before 11 pm on Wednesday. Shoot, nearly five decades on, and that poor Watergate Hotel still can’t catch a break in the bad PR department. Police say that the situation was a tale as old as time. Guy walks into a bar. Guy gets absolutely hammered. Guy spots celebrity. Guy decides to whip out their phone and capture the moment over and over again until said celebrity is forced to ask them to knock it the fuck off. And according to police, Woody’s request only made things worse. via NBC Washington:
Harrelson allegedly approached the man and told him to stop and to delete the photos. But the clash continued. Harrelson told officers the man lunged at him “in an attempt to grab his neck,” a police report says. A witness also said the man lunged at Harrelson, the report says. Harrelson punched the man in what police called apparent self-defense.
The man taking photos was questioned in his hotel room. Charges are pending, and an investigation is ongoing. The man’s name will be released once he is charged, police said.
Several witnesses at the bar claimed that the picture-taker was the one who instigated the violence and that they believed Woody’s punch was a clear display of self-defense. It’s not known which of Woody’s three daughters was involved in the altercation. Woody and his wife Laura Louie share three daughters: Deni, Zoe, and Makani (who are 28, 25, and 15, respectively).
But this isn’t the first time Woody has gotten into it with a photographer. In 1995, Woody allegedly “scuffled” with two photographers who were taking pictures of his family while on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. In 2006 he allegedly fought a TMZ paparazzi outside a nightclub in Hollywood. In 2009 he allegedly broke a photographer’s camera at LaGuardia airport (he happened to be with one of his daughters at the time of that incident too). Like, it’s pretty clear Woody Harrelson doesn’t enjoy it when a stranger turns things into an impromptu Sears Portrait Studio situation. And if that drunk asshole was a fan of Woody, he’d know that that’s not the right way to interact with Woody when you see him in a bar. Thanks to the NBC sitcom Cheers, everyone knows that you tell the bartender that looks like Sam Malone to move out of the way so you can talk to the hot dopey idiot named Woody about whatever weird dumb thing is on his mind. Of course, the risk there is that he’ll go on a boozy conspiracy rant about COVID-19 being spread by 5G radiation, and you’ll wish you never initiated the conversation.
Pic: Wenn.com