Bodyguard Arrested in Brawl

Madonna Forum

MADONNA BODYGUARDS ARRESTED IN BRAWL

Police detained two bodyguards of pop star Madonna on Friday after a brawl with photographers waiting for the singer outside her Tel Aviv hotel.

Two of the photographers and a policeman who tried to break up the fight were injured, said police spokeswoman Liat Pearl. "Two security guards were detained for questioning by the Tel Aviv police department," Pearl said.

The pop diva has been in Israel since Wednesday, along with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.

Madonna's visit to the country has sparked a media frenzy with the local newspapers devoting pages detailing her luxury hotel suite and even her menu for the Jewish New Year celebrations, but journalists have been kept at a distance during the visit.

The scuffle broke out Friday evening as the photographers trailed Madonna from a restaurant to her hotel. As Madonna entered her vehicle, the bodyguards pushed a photographer working for the Associated Press, breaking some of his equipment. He was unhurt.

Then, as other photographers trailed her convoy back to the hotel, some of the bodyguards stopped and tried to push another photographer off his motorbike, said a camera man on assignment for Associated Press Television News, who was at the scene.

At the hotel the star's bodyguards knocked one of the photographers to the floor and kicked him in the face, before attacking a second one who tried to intervene, the camera man said. The police then took the two bodyguards away.

Madonna had already entered her hotel when the fight broke out. Designer Donna Karan and Marla Maples, an ex-wife of Donald Trump, were among those traveling with Madonna, according to the Los Angeles based Kabbalah Center, sponsor of the trip.

- Associated Press

Nasty

Madge goons in cop brawl

I THOUGHT MADONNA’s visit to Israel was about making a show of peace and friendship.

So I was surprised to hear two of her security guards were arrested for punching an Israeli copper during a scuffle with photographers.

Not quite textbook Kabbalah behaviour, is it?

All hell broke loose on Saturday during Madge’s four-day pilgrimage to Tel Aviv with husband GUY RITCHIE.

A group of photographers and a crowd of fans approached Madge at the Menta Rey café on Tel Aviv’s waterfront.

But her minders were far from happy about the “intrusion” on the public beach and lost their cool with the crowd.

One of the photographers at the scene, Ouri Sivan, phoned to tell me the story.

He said: “Madonna went to the café near her hotel with Guy to watch the sunset. After an hour or so she got up to leave and saw a crowd gathering outside.

“Her bodyguards asked people to move back but they refused. The guards began pushing them and it started to get violent. Two guards started fighting with a photographer.

“They fell to the floor and the guards started kicking, punching and biting a guy who was trying to protect him.

“The police rushed in and a special forces officer got hit in the face by one of the guards.” The police then arrested the guards while Madge sneaked back to her hotel by car.

The photographer was rushed to hospital with injuries to his head, arms, legs and ribs. A police spokesman said two guards were held but not charged.

Last night Madonna said the trip was “a huge success” but added: “There were some problems with paparazzi — who were ferocious.”

Kabbalah is about respect — maybe Madonna should spread the word to her minders.

- The Sun