Could this be 2016’s answer to the Solange vs. Jay Z elevator scuffle?
TMZ is reporting that there is video footage of the Azealia Banks vs. Russell Crowe fight after all.
The incident has the potential to become a major embarrassment for Crowe if the video supports Banks’s claims. She alleges Crowe choked her while removing her from his Beverly Hills Hotel suite, and then spit on her in the hallway.
The local Beverly Hills Police Department has launched an investigation after Banks filed a battery report. She did so on Sunday afternoon after Crowe refused to apologize for the incident in which, he admits, he grabbed her in a bear hug and physically removed her from his hotel room, after Banks allegedly issued bizarre threats and used the n-word.
Azealia’s previous form, you may remember, includes putting a curse on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, launching a racist, homophobic rant against One Direction’s Zayn Malik, and calling a Delta flight attendant a “fucking faggot.”
But Crowe is no pacifist. He once threw a cellphone at a New York hotel concierge, and threatened a BBC executive who cut short his BAFTA Best Actor acceptance speech. (The unlucky London fellow was allegedly pinned to a wall by Crowe, who jabbed him in the chest and shouted: “You ***** piece of ****. I’ll make sure you’ll never work in Hollywood.”)
TMZ claims Banks then threatened Crowe and the woman, “You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino s***.”
According to TMZ, “witnesses say she dropped a few n-bombs,” but when she “reached for her glass, cocked it back” the Cinderella Man star “grabbed her in a bear hug and carried her out of the suite,” before calling hotel security.
“To recap my night, I went to a party at Russell Crowe’s suite, at which he called me a n****r, choked me, threw me out and spat at me,” Banks wrote in a post, which has since been deleted.
“Last night was one of the hardest nights of sleep I’ve had in a long time,” she said. “The men in the room allowed it to happen. I feel terrible today.”
In another message, Banks said she wished she “had someone to beat [Crowe] up” for her.