Bad blood over a book about the making of Natural Born Killers apparently drove filmmaker Quentin Tarantino to "get medieval," in the words of one eyewitness, on a movie producer Wednesday afternoon at a West Hollywood Italian eatery, punching the man in the face. (One fellow diner said it looked like a "slap fight.")
If that scene weren't surreal enough, the literal power lunch, at a restaurant called Ago on trendy Melrose Avenue, was short-circuited only when Miramax Films mogul Harvey Weinstein broke in and brokered a deal between the two men.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies were called to Ago, but no arrests were made. ("Whatever problems they had were resolved at the scene," a sergeant said.) Don Murphy, the producer who got pounded by the Pulp Fiction pugilist, declined to press charges.
Tarantino, meanwhile, who confirmed the incident through his spokesperson, sounded almost pleased by his performance.
"I really think I slapped some respect into the guy," the 34-year-old Oscar-winning writer told Daily Variety.
The two shook hands and "agreed not to badmouth each other anymore," Tarantino added.
Murphy and Tarantino both earned credits on Natural Born Killers: Murphy as a producer; Tarantino as the original screenwriter. Murphy's producing partner, Jane Hamsher, recently published an insider's account of that 1994 production, Killer Instinct. The book takes shots at director Oliver Stone (depicted as a drug-addled taskmaster), Tarantino's producing bud Lawrence Bender (a "jackal"), and Tarantino himself (a "one-trick pony" who is "on his way to becoming the George Gobel of directors--famous for being famous.")
"Jane and I knew Killer Instinct struck a raw nerve with Quentin, but I was still caught off guard when he threw me up against a wall and punched me," Murphy said, in a statement.
The outburst caught diners by surprise, too.
One patron looked up to see "this slugfest going on [near] the maitre d' station."
"I don't think either of these guys had a clue how to fight," said the witness, who described the melee like this: Tarantino standing above a cowering man, "punching at his head."
Hamsher, who was in the restroom during the incident, later said Tarantino "should thank God Harvey Weinstein was there to save his ass."
(UPDATED at 10:25 a.m. on 10/23/97)