Thursday, 9 November 2006

Denise Richards in bizarre movie set incident

Actress involved in tussle with photographers

Denise Richards was involved in a bizarre incident with paparazzi Wednesday on the Canadian set of her new movie Blonde and Blonder, where laptop computers were hurled and a senior citizen slightly injured, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tells PEOPLE.

The Mounties were summoned to the movie location at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver, after Richards took issue with the presence of two unauthorized photographers on the set, said Cpl. Peter Thiessen, a media relations officer for the Richmond Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The actress approached the photographers and threw their laptops off the balcony of the hotel, said Thiessen, adding that a computer "struck an 80-year-old women in a wheelchair. It struck her in the arm. She was not interested in pursuing criminal charges and suffered only minor injuries."

Police interviewed both Richards and her costar, Pamela Anderson, about the incident, and the movie production company agreed to pay for the damages to the photographers' computers, according to Thiessen.

As of yet, no charges are being filed. Howard Blank, a representative of the Blonde and Blonder production, said, "No one was seriously injured in any way." He said the events were "getting blown way out of proportion."

Blank added, "As a precaution first aid was called. An ambulance was called, which is also routine. No one was transferred to the hospital at all. Everything is fine."

Richards and cast members were "very upset" about the incident, Blank said, and after filming was halted for an hour it then resumed and continued until 8 in the evening.