In case you have not heard, there was a fight at the Stray Cat Club in Shreveport, LA last Saturday. Now, this might not be of much importance other than it involved actor Josh Brolin. Brolin has been in Shreveport for the last couple of months filming the latest Oliver Stone film W. If you cannot guess whom that one is about, it is about President George W. Bush, with Brolin playing the current president.
Rumors say that word got out that Brolin, co-star Jeffrey Wright (who plays Colin Powell in the film), and five others from the film crew were at the bar and some of Shreveport’s more conservative crowd decided to let them know what they felt about the film and its anti-Bush tone.
Josh, Wright and the other crew members were arrested around 2 am, and then were released after posting the $334 bail.
That might seem to be the end of the story – another Hollywood celebrity gets in trouble, but posts bail – but this one has taken a different twist.
A witness said that the police pepper sprayed Brolin, even though he was trying to break up the fight. TMZ is also reporting that the police used a taser gun on Wright then hurled racial insults at him. The Shreveport police chief, Henry Whitehorn, has said that the police are reviewing audio and video of the incident (taken by cell phone and patrol car cameras).
This is not Brolin’s first arrest. He was arrested and charged with battery in 2004 when his wife, actress Diane Lane, called the police, saying he had assaulted her. They remain married.
As for his acting career, Brolin is on a roll with three highly acclaimed films last year alone – In the Valley of Elah, American Gangster, and the Oscar award winning film No Country for Old Men.