This 'Avatar' Star Was Arrested

Well, this is a big bummer. On Sunday, Avatar star Sam Worthington was arrested for assaulting a photographer in New York City's Greenwich Village. The incident happened at 5:30 p.m. outside Benny's Burritos restaurant, when paparazzo Sheng Li kicked Worthington's girlfriend, Lara Bingle, in the shin. Whatever spurred Li's kick isn't known, but Worthington didn't take it lightly. The Australian actor jumped to his girlfriend's defense and punched Li in the face, which made the photographer start to bleed, Radar Online reports.

“The photographer kicked Lara and then Worthington punched him causing the photographer to have lacerations to his nose,” New York Police Department Lieutenant John Grimpel says. “He has been charged with assault. He punched the photographer.”

Worthington was then arrested and released on bail, but will appear in court at a later date.

Worthington and Bingle were also bloody after the incident and were seen showing their injuries to law enforcement by the manager of Benny's, E! News reports.

Li was arrested as well and was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and harassment. He is reportedly still in custody.

It's lucky that nobody was seriously harmed in the incident, since violence is never the answer. Even though Worthington may have been defending his girlfriend, this is just another scuffle in the longtime battle between celebrities and paparazzi assaulting each other in public, often turning things into a heavy he said/she said lawsuit battle. Except when it's a scuffle involving Alec Baldwin, he usually does most of the talking.

This situation marks Worthington's second arrest, since he was handcuffed for disorderly conduct in 2012 in Atlanta, when he got into a fight with a restaurant doorman.

Worthington has a busy few years coming up. He's working on six films in 2014, and Avatar 2, Avatar 3 , and Avatar 4 coming out in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively.