Rapper Azealia Banks has reportedly filed a battery report against actor Russell Crowe following a Beverly Hills hotel spat over the weekend.
Azealia Banks accused Russell Crowe of assaulting her in a Facebook post, claiming he hurled racial slurs at her during the altercation, and she reportedly demanded an apology from the 52-year-old.
When that didn’t come she filed a report with Beverly Hills police on Sunday.
However, according to TMZ sources, it was actually Crowe who was the victim of the attack.
Reports suggest Azealia was taken to Russell’s room at the hotel by rapper RZA, who had been invited to dinner by the Gladiator star. The get together took a turn for the worse, according to the outlet, when Azealia criticised the music Russell was playing, laughing at the tunes and calling the actor and one of his guests “boring white men”.
“Multiple witnesses” tell the site the 212 hitmaker launched an attack on the actor and an unidentified woman when she came to the host’s defence and attempted to encourage Azealia to drop her antagonistic attitude.
Sources tell TMZ.com that Azealia said: “You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino shit.”
She is said to have peppered her speech with the word “nigger”, before apparently reaching for her glass – a move that prompted Russell to reportedly grab his guest and carry her out of his suite. He then reportedly called hotel security guards and asked them to remove Azealia from the premises.
An investigation followed, TMZ reports, during which at least four of the guests and witnesses at the dinner gave statements describing Azealia’s behaviour as “erratic”.
Rapper/producer RZA, who recently signed Azealia to his record label, is reportedly aware that it was his date who used the racial slurs, not Russell.
A spokesperson for the actor declined to comment on the situation when contacted by Billboard.com, while Azealia’s original post on Facebook has now been deleted.
