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Jodie Foster Cleared of Teen-Whomping Allegations

Silence of the Lambs star will not be facing a battery charge for allegedly manhandling a nosy teen

By Josh Grossberg Sep 14, 2010 7:50 PMTags
Jodie FosterAP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

Jodie Foster has gone from The Accused to the cleared.

The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office tells E! News that the Oscar winner will not face any charges for allegedly laying a beatdown on a teenage shutterbug.

"We did get a copy of the complaint but declined to file charges," said city attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan.

The father of the 17-year-old boy, whose identity was withheld because he was underage, filed a police report over the May 29 incident. He claimed the 47-year-old Foster had "pushed and shoved" his son after the teen tried to snap some photos of her and her two children as they were leaving an L.A. mall.

Per the complaint, the Contact star supposedly "followed [the victim], poked him on his chest, [and] grabbed [the victim] by his left arm causing visible injury," including scratches and bruises.

News of the alleged altercation surfaced two weeks later, prompting a scathing denial from Foster's rep Jennifer Allen who called the young man "a professional paparazzo" who possessed "a large camera bag and a 1000mm telephoto lens" and had "tailed the actress and her young sons from the movie theater to valet parking."

The teen's actions, Allen said, "scared the kids," prompting Foster to take action, but aside from touching him on his elbow to ask him to stop, that was the extent of the so-called "attack."

The aspiring photog should count his blessings: at least Foster didn't call her old friend Mel Gibson to come to her defense.

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