Video Reveals Chaotic Arrest of Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright

Charges against Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright over a bar fight in Shreveport, Louisiana in Julywill be dropped providing the actors pay their court costs of $130 each, following a court hearing today:

"The actors were with crew members from the Oliver Stone movie 'W.' about President George W. Bush. Police arrived after one crew member caused a fracas and was asked to leave. Police pepper-sprayed both Brolin and Wright, while Wright was also hit with an electric shock from a Taser weapon, Berk said. Prosecutors were not immediately available to comment."

A video also emerged today shot by a bystander outside the Stray Cat bar where the altercation took place showing Brolin reacting to pepper spray before being arrested, and Wright tasered while held down by officers in the street.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previously
George W. Bush and Colin Powell Actors Arrested in Bar Fight [tr]

Court: Louisiana Must List Both Adoptive Dads on Birth Certificate

The state of Louisiana has been ordered by a federal court to list the names of both adopted fathers on a boy's birth certificate, a decision with strong emotional implications as well as practical ones such as insurance and travel safety:

"The facts are so clear that no trial is needed, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey wrote. 'What a great Christmas present for these guys!' said Kenneth D. Upton Jr. who represented Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego. In his ruling Monday, Zainey said Louisiana's Office of Vital Records must give full faith and credit to the New York State court in which Adar and Smith adopted the boy, he ruled Monday. The office had refused to issue a birth certificate listing both as the boy's legal parents. Upton, reached at home Saturday evening, said he hopes to get a birth certificate in the coming week but doesn't know whether the Louisiana Attorney General's Office — which is in charge, although a state health department attorney argued the case — will decide to appeal. The attorney general's office will look into the matter next week, said Tammi Arender Herring, spokeswoman for Attorney General James 'Buddy' Caldwell. Upton, of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. of Dallas, said it is the fourth case of its kind that he knows of. Cases in Oklahoma, Virginia and Mississippi also were decided in the parents' favor — the Mississippi case decided at trial about a month ago, he said."

Plenty of other issues will be affected as well: "Adar also said the family often travels, and because the boy is black and they are white, an airline worker once stopped them, thinking they were kidnapping the child. 'Every time we fly, we fear this could happen again,' he wrote."

London Chaplain: Tattoo Gays with Sodomy Warnings

Reverend Peter Mullen, the Chaplain to the London Stock Exchange, is under fire for suggesting that gays be branded with sodomy warning tattoos:

Said Mullen: "It is time that religious believers began to recommend ... discouragements of homosexual practices after the style of warnings on cigarette packets. Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan 'SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH' and their chins with 'FELLATIO KILLS'."

Mullen also called for the banning of gay pride parades, and wrote a poem mocking the recent blessing of the union of two gay priests by Reverend Martin Dudley.

The Evening Standard reports: "The poem begins: 'The Bishop of London is in a high huff, Because Dr Dudley has married a puff; And not just one puff - he's married another: Two priests, two puffs and either to other.' The ceremony, which took place in the summer, was roundly condemned by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, as a breach of Church of England rules."

The Bishop of London called Mullen's marks "highly offensive" and gay rights group Stonewall UK is calling for Mullen's resignation.

Gay men should have sodomy warning tattoos [evening standard]

Gov. Jindal to Reauthorize Discrimination Against Gays in Louisiana

Louisiana residents will once again face the threat of being fired from their jobs for being gay or lesbian when Governor Bobby Jindal allows a 2004 executive order made by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco to expire this Friday:

"We are not going to renew it and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. The reason for allowing the order to lapse is that I don’t think it is necessary to create additional special categories or special rights. We are firmly and strongly committed to fair treatment of all of our people and certainly don’t condone discrimination in any form."

Blanco's order added sexual orientation to a list of areas covered by discrimination laws, including race, religion, gender, national origin, political affiliation and disabilities.

Said Baton Rouge businessman and former state Revenue Department secretary Joe Traigle in a statement: "Jindal, for the sake of economic development in Louisiana, should reissue the non-discrimination executive order so that the sign below Louisiana can again read ‘everyone welcome.’"

George W. Bush and Colin Powell Actors Arrested in Bar Fight

Actors Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, in Shreveport, Louisiana to play George W. Bush and Colin Powell in Oliver Stone's W, were arrested in a bar fight in downtown Shreveport over the weekend:

"According to Shreveport Police patrol report, officers were called to the Stray Cat bar in the 200 block of Travis Street just after 2 a.m. to deal with a rowdy patron. As more officers arrived, several other patrons at the bar, including Brolin and fellow actor Jeffrey Wright, 42, tried to impede the officers, the report said. In all, the report named 10 officers called to the ruckus. Brolin, Wright and four other people were charged with interfering with police, a misdemeanor. Brolin was booked into the city jail, and posted $334 cash bond to be released."

Brolin also plays Harvey Milk assassin Dan White in Gus van Sant's upcoming biopic Milk.

Mugshots of the other arrestees, including Wright, AFTER THE JUMP...

GOP Senate Candidate in Louisiana Drops Out Over Lewd Conduct

At what point does this officially qualify as an epidemic?

Republican state senate candidate Joey DiFatta has reportedly dropped out of the race in Louisiana following revelations that he was stopped not once, but twice, for lewd conduct suspicion. In the first, a "Peeping Tom" incident, DiFatta was issued a misdemeanor summons for spying on a man in a stall at a Mervyn's department store at The Esplanade mall. The man whose privacy he allegedly violated eventually withdrew his complaint.

In the second, DiFatta was caught pulling a Larry Craig in a stall at at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center, according to the Times-Picayune:

"The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states. The detective asked DiFatta, 'What do you want?' according to the report, and he replied, 'I want to play with you.' DiFatta also used a hand signal to indicate that he wanted to engage in sex and used language that indicated the same, according to the report. Conley, who is now the Kenner city attorney, confirmed the report's authenticity Thursday. The incident did not culminate in an arrest because the deputy in the bathroom with DiFatta terminated the investigation after several children entered the bathroom, the report states."

Said Di Fatta: "If I had done something wrong, I would have been arrested. I was not. I will deny that I was involved in any activity of that nature."

DiFatta is a Councilman for St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans. According to DailyKos, DiFatta was a member of the Republican State Central Committee from 1996-2004, is married with two sons and three grandchildren, and pledged to "defend our conservative values from attacks by extreme liberal groups" as part of his campaign.