More details are coming out about Saturday's altercation between has-been actor Ryan O'Neal and his druggie son Griffin, which ended in a shot being fired, and O'Neal being booked for assault with a deadly weapon. The instigator of the whole affair, according to Ryan, was Griffin. In a statement released by his rep, Ryan says that Griffin swung wildly at him with a fireplace poker, grazing him several times, and finally striking his own pregnant girlfriend in the head. Ryan says he then got scared, and ran to his room and grabbed his heater. Griffin, undeterred by the injury to his female, chased Ryan, but was finally put off when Ryan fired a warning shot into the banister. The young woman, one Joanne Berry, received only minor injuries from the wayward poker-strike, and was taken to UCLA medical center. There has thus far been no comment from Berry or Griffin O'Neal, nor any clarification (that I can find) as to what caused the row in the first place (beyond the general fact that Ryan and Griffin are both a pair of colossal assholes). Ryan O'Neal himself was released after posting $50,000 bail, and has returned to his job on the set of the FOX series Bones.
Thanksgiving dinner is going to be damn awkward at the O'Neal house this year, I can tell you that.
