Sean Penn has never been a fan of the paparazzi, and based on an incident caught on tape Tuesday, neither is his 19-year-old son Hopper Penn.
The younger Penn was following his father into a Beverly Hills building Tuesday when the incident occurred. Sean sauntered past the clicking photographers without a word or acknowledgment, but his son walked over from across the street and began engaging the photographers. Based on a video shot by one of the snappers, Hopper pushed past him (possibly making contact) and the two began engaging in a verbal altercation.
"What the hell?" the photographer who got pushed aside said.
"You f------ kidding me?" Hopper shot back, never pausing.
"You kidding me?" the photographer continued, following him into the building. "Don't play yourself. Don't ever do that, dude."
Hopper shot his middle finger in the air and the verbal parrying continued. But then it took a more aggressive turn, as Hopper's retreating figure first called the photographer a homosexual slur.
"That the kind of talk you're teaching him, Sean?" the photographer, undeterred, called down the emptying hallway.
Hopper's last riposte was to shoot back that the photographer, who was African-American, was a "f------ n-----."
"Oh, word?" the photographer, now outraged, called out.
Police showed up at the scene, according to E! Online, and the photographer is seen in another video showing officers footage on his camera. The photographer declined to press charges. No one was cited.
Hopper later issued a statement, saying, "I was accosted by paparazzi and made to feel like an animal -- threatened and under attack, but that does not condone my own actions. ... I deeply regret my choice of words."
Sean Penn's own altercations with the paparazzi have been well documented. Here's video from 2010 of the actor kicking a photographer. And here's a classic image from back in the Madonna days of Penn throwing a punch.
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