Jackass star Johnny Knoxville hasn’t made headlines in a while. According to IMDB he has one film coming out next year, a movie based on a graphic novel called Hawaiian Dick. Other than that he’s not really in demand. When I first heard about this incident I thought it might be a publicity stunt as it seems to have come at a convenient time for him. TMZ reports that Knoxville had a grenade in his hand luggage at LAX airport but was somehow forgiven by security and allowed to board his flight. As if that would happen for anyone but a celebrity:

UPDATE: We’ve learned the “grenade” found in Knoxville’s bag was the real deal — but had no explosives. In other words, it was not a toy.

Only a jackass brings a grenade to an airport — and cops say that’s exactly what Johnny Knoxville did today.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Knoxville was detained this morning at LAX after security found a fake grenade in his carry-on bag. He was in terminal 4 (American Airlines) when a screener saw something suspicious.

Knoxville was detained, cited and released. We’re told the citation was for carrying a “prohibited item” into an airport.

But check this — Knoxville made his flight.

[From TMZ]

Knoxville explains the incident on his blog. He says he didn’t bring the grenade on purpose and didn’t even know it was there. It was a prop for a show that was put there by an assistant who packed his luggage:

A few days ago, I was filming some commercials for this show we are doing for MTV called Nitro Circus, so I took a bunch of silly props in my carry-on bag to the shoot. Well, when the shoot was over, the wardrobe girl packed my luggage so I could go home and, unbeknownst to me, she packed a FAKE hand grenade (a prop grenade that I’d taken to the shoot) in the front zipper of my luggage. Needless to say, when I was packing to go out of town this morning with my girlfriend and daughter, I didn’t see the FAKE grenade in my luggage.

Ah f*#% was I bummed when I realized what had happened… The cops did their job and verified that it wasn’t real. Also, they were cool as they could be to me, considering the situation, and it is no ones fault but my own. I should have checked my goddamn luggage through and through, but I didn’t and now we have this incident. From what I hear, all the tabloids are saying it was a real grenade, but that’s bullshit. They just said that to make a story out of it, because if it was real I never would have been allowed to board my flight to Miami an hour later. Anyway, it was a mistake, and I just landed at the Miami airport. Damn.

[From Jackassworld.com]

That explains why he was allowed on the flight anyway, which sounds like the right thing for the TSA people to have done. How would they have responded to that same scenario with a non-celebrity, though? Like if someone said “Oh my buddy put that toy grenade there, I’m so surprised!” You can’t even bring a bottle of water on the plane now.

Johnny Knoxville is shown on 12/23/08 with his daughter, Madison. Credit: Fame