Rip Torn Kicks Norman Mailer's Ass

I'm in the middle of reading Mailer's "Castle in the Clouds" [holding out judgement] and while googling the old man I ran across this:

On the set of the 1970 film Maidstone, Rip Torn assaults Norman Mailer with a hammer, and Mailer retaliates by biting off a piece of Torn's ear:

Who could we get to do the updated version? Eggers v. Foster Wallace? Whitehead v. Eugenides, Ha!

Some backstory:

Norman Mailer created a film in the late 60s called MAIDSTONE. He played the part of a famous movie director who is considering a run for the presidency. Rip Torn played his potential assassin. At the end of filming, Rip appeared to get a little too far into his role, and he attacked Mailer on camera with a hammer, drawing blood. Mailer retaliated by viciously biting into Torn's ear, drawing even more blood. This is the fight.

It's debatable how "surprised" that Mailer was by the attack, but it should be noted that he still had the camera crew hanging around and filming, the day after production had allegedly "ended" on the picture. However, the blood from both men is undeniably real, as are the horrified reactions of Mailer's children (his wife, on the other hand, seems to be overacting badly).

More backstory here.

[via iFilm.]

via Panpopticist