Sunday, 12 November 2006

Denise Richards says laptop toss a 'big mistake'

She regrets hurling photographer's computer off a balcony

Denise Richards says she made a "big mistake" when she tossed a photographer's laptop computer off a balcony on a Canadian movie set, but the actress will not face criminal charges in the incident.

"I am not justifying my behavior. It was wrong," Richards tells Access Hollywood in an exclusive interview airing Monday. "I saw one of the photographers, went up to him and offered to give him a few nice shots and asked him to please leave so we can focus on our scene.

"He wouldn't and he got really belligerent and he was saying vulgar, nasty things to me and made a derogatory remark about my family. I just did what I did and I feel terrible."

Richards admits hurling a computer on the set of her new movie Blonde and Blonder at the River Rock Casino and Hotel in Richmond, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver, but says it did not strike an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair and it was only one laptop, not two as reported earlier.

"Over the balcony it went," she tells Access Hollywood. "It was a big mistake on my part … I'm not volatile at all. I'm not aggressive. I've never been with the paparazzi. I feel bad that I ended up doing that."

On Friday, Canadian police said Richards won't face charges in the incident.

"The photographers, Denise Richards and her management company have agreed to settle the matter civilly regarding the damages to the photographers' laptops," Cpl. Peter Thiessen, a media-relations officer for the Richmond Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said in a statement. "It is not in the public interest to forward criminal charges regarding this matter."

Still, the movie production company for Blonde and Blonder, which also stars Pamela Anderson, said in a statement Thursday that "a number of unauthorized persons entered the film set and began harrassing members of the cast."

Richards and cast members were "very upset" about the incident, which stopped filming for an hour, Howard Blank, a representative of the production, said.

A rep for Richards told PEOPLE, "Based on the actions of the paparazzi, they are lucky their laptops are the only things that were tossed over the balcony."