Jun 23, 2008 2:50 am US/Pacific
Fight Club! Surfers Vs. Paparazzi At Malibu Beach
MALIBU
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Matthew McConaughey. (File)
CBS4
The last thing big, buff, muscled, action star Matthew McConaughey needs is for someone to fight his battles, but a group of Malibu surfers did just that for him Saturday when they went after a pack of paparazzi and got into a wild scuffle caught on tape.
Surfers are notoriously press shy and paparazzi are notoriously aggressive. Anyone see this as a natural for conflict?
At least one photog had his proboscis (aka nose) punched and broken. Another was dunked in the ocean, his equipment reportedly destroyed.
Video footage of the wild fracas was posted on TMZ.com and x17online.com, two sites that deal in celebrity cheese and drama.
The videos show McConaughey -- that sexy shirtless devil -- surfing in his element about 100 feet from a swarm of photogs. The video then shows more than a dozen young boardshort-clad surfers, some drinking beer, walking towards the media cluster.
One of the photographers can be heard gloomily predicting, "This looks nasty."
One of the surfers is heard yelling "Nobody that lives here, wants you here!"
McConaughey was not involved in the fight.
A surfer offers money for the photographers to leave, it's unclear if the offer was sincere or not. But after a heated exchange of words one surfer (who apparently has watched too many 50s B movies) offers a "fight for the beach."
More curses and obscenities and threats fly (lots of name calling on both sides) and from there chests start bumping, photographers start running and some arms start swinging.
One surfer can be seen hitting a photographer. The photog, in turns, takes what looks to be his tripod and swings at the man and hits him with it. Then several surfers jump the photographer.
Both tapes that appear on TMZ and x17 are edited. [Note, the x17 version -- which at 3 minutes, is about one minute longer than the TMZ version, is more graphic with expletives left in.]
Malibu mayor Pamela Conley Ulich has asked for a city ordinance regulating photographers without trammeling First Amendment free press rights.
One photographer reportedly filed battery charges.
No arrests have been announced.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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