Grant filming with Sarah Jessica Parker on 4/9/09. Credit: Bauergriffinonline
TMZ has new video of British former heart throb Hugh Grant, 48, hauling off and kicking a photographer in the groin for what seems like no reason at all. Grant was leaving the Waverly Inn in New York with a female friend last night. The Waverly Inn is one of the few paparazzi hot spots in New York and celebrities who go there expect to be photographed outside. Grant and his date were happily chatting with the paparazzi, who were friendly and not rude at all from what I could hear. One guy asked Grant what he’d been up to and he joked that he was “wanking on Internet.”
Then a guy tells Grant that he should change direction if he wants to catch a cab and he turns, looks mean and kicks him in the crotch. It didn’t seem like he hurt him, and we can hear the photographer say it’s a good thing he put his hand up to protect himself. The whole thing was bizarre and you wonder what made Grant flip like that, seemingly without provocation.
Grant often looks annoyed in paparazzi pictures. He last kicked a photographer in an April, 2007 incident near his home in London. He also hauled a takeout container of beans at the guy, spraying beans in his hair. Grant was arrested and questioned by police, but charges were eventually dropped. It looks like his hatred for the paparazzi is so deep that he’ll even attack photographers that are being nice to him.
According to IMDB, Grant is working on a new film with Sarah Jessica Parker, his first since 2007’s Music and Lyrics. He did make some really good coin in late 2007, over £9 million, selling an Andy Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor he bought in 2002. Maybe he should consider a new career if he can’t handle it when people take his photo occasionally.
Nope, I don’t see him doing this without good reason.
Hugh Grant is an angry guy. He needs to come to terms with himself and I think his sexuality is the issue.
This may be a leap, but I think the pap saying “you need to change direction” hit Grant’s hot button.
Watch the video clare, it looks completely unprovoked.
Totally unprovoked and really weird. Talking and laughing and then it comes out of nowhere. No good reason here at all. Gotta say, that just changed my whole view of him; he’s got some real issues he ought to think about dealing with.
He’s a complete prat. Crap actor and seemingly a pretty crap person too.
cb, please accept my apology. I just watched the video. He does seem to be acting weird even before he does that split-personality change and kicks the paparazzi. Maybe too much drink? He has been so vocal in the past about how he hates the paparazzi…
Who was that weird lady companion?
jeez, he really lost it…
and yeah, it was unprovoked… if you call ‘unprovoked’ following someone around day and night, usually screaming obscenities and occasionally causing them to die in flaming car wrecks, oh, and snapping pics of their ruined body as they lay dying….
ahem. Anyway, unfortunately this pap, whom I realize was doing none of the above, will probably sue and yeah, ok, legally/rightly so, but it still sucks how helpless people are against the paps.
I fully realize that by reading these sites, I’m contributing to the problem…
I just don’t understand why harassment is ok. And for all we know, this jackoff was saying rude things to Grant right before they got the cameras going… it’s not like that’s not a tactic they employ…
paps and celebs…celebs and paps.
They feed off each other, live off each other, benefit each other, and diminish each other.
In short, they deserve each other. No one goes into either profession blind to the reality.
Just because the mic didn’t pick up the comment doesn’t mean Grant did it without reason.
And no, the Waverly isn’t “one of the few paparazzi hot spots in New York and celebrities who go there expect to be photographed outside.” It’s yet another upscale restaurant where people go to eat.
I wish the people who don’t live in/near New York City would stop tossing about platitudes of what it’s like, where the “hotspots” are, etc., etc. You really sound ignorant.
Good. Nice one, Hugh. A TMZ pap getting a good kicking is reason to celebrate, provoked or otherwise.
Also, why do TMZ paps have such whiny, nasally, ingratiating voices? Special pap school that teaches them the most effective way to irritate and get right under someone’s skin?
i’d be happy just to be touched by Hugh Grant.
It was just one kick! It wasn’t even some huge attack.
Team Hugh.
I’d like to think of this as the TMZ guy taking one for the team. Some many times they’re heard off camera goading celebrities to get some sort of reaction – be it verbal or physical. Maybe Hugh was beating them to the punch or the kick as it were…
PS – have just watched video and to me his kick said “stop f&cking following me”. Inconsequential, not that I’m excusing such bad behaviour!
I’d want to kick the little cockroaches in the beans too. Team Hugh.
It’s always nice to see a pap get retaliated against since insulting them is of no use as they just come back with more nonsense….way to go Hugh!
@Clare you don’t have to apologize. 😉
I would just like to say something about the paparazzi.
I am a gossip blogger. There are some people who claim all gossip bloggers are scum because of some high profile members of my profession who write juvenile rude things. (Not that we don’t do this too, I just like to think it’s rarer here or we think it through more or whatever. I could be fooling myself.)
The paparazzi get a bad rap, IMO, because there are a few of them who overstep their boundaries. I am not defending them all or saying that they have the right to stalk people.
The guy that Hugh kicked sounded completely normal and nice and this did not seem like a situation where someone was harassing him at all. I just don’t think it’s fair to lump all paparazzi together or say that one guy deserved to get kicked because there are other paparazzi who are scum.
It’s odd to me that you would say the pap sounded nice and normal. Particularly since TMZ paps are notorious for their in your face, anything for a story tactics. He could have said something that wasn’t picked up on camera or he may be familiar to Grant from another occasion, who knows?
Fact is, Hugh Grant has a well known rep for his loathing of the paps and a short fuse where they’re concerned. The paps know this so the act of following him is in itself provocative. They risk retaliation, they know the score, they want a reaction and they know exactly how to get it. And no, he shouldn’t have to put it with it and neither should any other celeb going about their day to day business who makes it clear they don’t want attention. When they’re ‘on’ sure, part of the job but off duty, no, they’re not obliged to give paps the time of day. And least of all these scummy pondlife. And it’s far more that a few who overstep the boundaries.
Think I’ll save my sympathy for those that deserve it.
Geronimo did you watch the video?
Yes, I wouldn’t be commenting if I hadn’t watched it.
wasnt he in a cab when he was caught with a prostitute? maybe he thought the pap was making fun of him in a reference to a taxi.
Tess, I can see what you’re saying about “you need to change direction” setting him off. Like maybe he’s so famous that someone giving him advice or talking to him like a normal guy makes his ego go nuts.
I want Grant’s response! Where’s his Twitter??lol
As a teacher, it’s interesting to me to read the arguments about whether or not the photog said anything to “provoke” Grant into kicking him in the groin. The assumption being that the man fully deserved to be attacked for saying the wrong thing, the only question being if he had done so or not. Umm, no. It reminds me of Board of Ed hearings in which the student’s lawyer claims the teacher “provoked” the student into a physical attack (and often wins because of the Board’s crappy lawyers). Whether you’re a woman (like Rhianna) or a man (like this photographer), a physical attack for “saying the wrong thing” is always wrong. Always. I don’t care what they say about you or your mama. And a physical attack by a multi-millionaire like Grant is not merely wrong, but disgusting and appalling. It’s like the people on this site have personally been “stalked” by photographers to have such hatred and contempt for them. Just weird and plain wrong.
Who wrote the article? I just watched the TMZ video. Grant is not at all happily chatting with the paparazzi.
The first thing Grant says is “You guys ever had sex?”
Paparazzo says “No, never!”
Hugh says “Wanking on the internet, eh? Look at you. Not even a man, not even a man”. Then gives the paparazzo a kick when he changes direction and gets close enough to the guy.
So there’s no sudden flip in mood, he’s angry and being abusive right from the get go. He’s smiling and laughing at the beginning but you know its a smile of contempt. Everyone knows the term a contemptuous laugh don’t they? Well, it’s one of those.
Yes, poiup, you’re absolutely right. Contempt is exactly what it is. I was also surprised at the suggestion that there was ever anything friendly going on here. Aggression waiting to happen, just what the stupid, ignorant, greedy paps love.
Oh wow, I had no clue this guy was still alive and kicking.
Who wouldn’t get angry with all them paparazzi taking pictures where ever you go. Yes, it’s true Hugh Grant does have a temper, but with his bad temper and all I wouldn’t mind being around him. Hugh baby 🙂 let me do the job for you. I’ll make sure they’ll never take another picture of you ever again?