PHUKET: Noted film actor Jeremy Renner was attacked on Phuket, Thailand, says Hollywood online celebrity site tmz.com, ''in an early morning bar brawl that left one man in serious condition after getting slashed in the neck with a rotor axe.''
The tmz.com celebrity site has a huge audience and achieved its breaking news reputation by exposing the serial infidelities of golfer Tiger Woods.
The Phuket bar attack has also been reported by the 'National Enquirer', a well-read US tabloid newspaper, and is rapidly being picked up by other international media.
Mention of Phuket in the context of a Hollywood actor being injured is not good for tourism.
''Thai authorities say Jeremy and his party had been bar hopping and ended up at the club where the violence broke out at 4:30 AM, after hours. One of the men in Jeremy's party - Vorasit Issara, the General Manager of the Siri Panwa Resort - dropped a glass on the floor and apparently that started the melee,'' reports tmz.com.
The fact that Sri Panwa is spelt wrongly won't save Phuket. The events as described in tmz.com are basically what Phuketwan has been told in its own inquiries.
We hear that after the glass was dropped quite accidentally, security people arrived and shone a torch through the darkened venue.
Khun Vorasit thought the torch was shining in his face . . . and trouble began. He and his friends had been to two other Phuket City bars before reaching the Rassada Pub.
According to tmz.com: ''Six men - who apparently worked at the bar - then allegedly attacked Jeremy, Vorasit and the others in their party.
''In addition to being stabbed in the neck, Vorasit was stabbed in the stomach with a knife.
''One source claims Vorasit was drinking and was in a heated argument with the bar staff immediately before the attack. The six men who attacked Jeremy's group were arrested.
''Jeremy suffered minor injuries.''
The actor is believed to have been treated for his slight injury at Bangkok Hospital Phuket and allowed to leave.
The presence of Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) makes the Phuket bar brawl at the pub after closing time an international story. It is likely to spread because a huge number of people either read tmz.com or the ''gossip'' sites that follow it. Many of them will report the incident.
According to Phuket sources, two of the guests with Khun Vorasit, whose family owns the swank five-star villa Sri panwa resort on Phuket's Cape Panwa, were women.
His driver, Nopadon Preechawai, aged 30, the same as his boss, is still in the intensive care unit at Bangkok Hospital Phuket in Phuket City tonight.
The six ''security men'' involved in the attack are now in the hands of Phuket City police, who presented them to the media earlier today but did not allow journalists to question them about precisely what took place.
What Phuketwan reckoned to be a home-made tomahawk used with other more conventional weapons in the Phuket attack, others reported to be ''a battleaxe.''
Khun Vorasit was struck at least twice in the back with the tomahawk, as well as being knifed in the stomach. His attackers then washed the blood from their weapons in a sink usually used to clean drinking glasses, Phuketwan has been told.
The men, spattered in blood, also washed their clothes clean at the pub bar.
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha has order the pub to close for 90 days. A thorough check on the activities of all after-hours venues on Phuket is expected.
The tmz.com celebrity site has a huge audience and achieved its breaking news reputation by exposing the serial infidelities of golfer Tiger Woods.
The Phuket bar attack has also been reported by the 'National Enquirer', a well-read US tabloid newspaper, and is rapidly being picked up by other international media.
Mention of Phuket in the context of a Hollywood actor being injured is not good for tourism.
''Thai authorities say Jeremy and his party had been bar hopping and ended up at the club where the violence broke out at 4:30 AM, after hours. One of the men in Jeremy's party - Vorasit Issara, the General Manager of the Siri Panwa Resort - dropped a glass on the floor and apparently that started the melee,'' reports tmz.com.
The fact that Sri Panwa is spelt wrongly won't save Phuket. The events as described in tmz.com are basically what Phuketwan has been told in its own inquiries.
We hear that after the glass was dropped quite accidentally, security people arrived and shone a torch through the darkened venue.
Khun Vorasit thought the torch was shining in his face . . . and trouble began. He and his friends had been to two other Phuket City bars before reaching the Rassada Pub.
According to tmz.com: ''Six men - who apparently worked at the bar - then allegedly attacked Jeremy, Vorasit and the others in their party.
''In addition to being stabbed in the neck, Vorasit was stabbed in the stomach with a knife.
''One source claims Vorasit was drinking and was in a heated argument with the bar staff immediately before the attack. The six men who attacked Jeremy's group were arrested.
''Jeremy suffered minor injuries.''
The actor is believed to have been treated for his slight injury at Bangkok Hospital Phuket and allowed to leave.
The presence of Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) makes the Phuket bar brawl at the pub after closing time an international story. It is likely to spread because a huge number of people either read tmz.com or the ''gossip'' sites that follow it. Many of them will report the incident.
According to Phuket sources, two of the guests with Khun Vorasit, whose family owns the swank five-star villa Sri panwa resort on Phuket's Cape Panwa, were women.
His driver, Nopadon Preechawai, aged 30, the same as his boss, is still in the intensive care unit at Bangkok Hospital Phuket in Phuket City tonight.
The six ''security men'' involved in the attack are now in the hands of Phuket City police, who presented them to the media earlier today but did not allow journalists to question them about precisely what took place.
What Phuketwan reckoned to be a home-made tomahawk used with other more conventional weapons in the Phuket attack, others reported to be ''a battleaxe.''
Khun Vorasit was struck at least twice in the back with the tomahawk, as well as being knifed in the stomach. His attackers then washed the blood from their weapons in a sink usually used to clean drinking glasses, Phuketwan has been told.
The men, spattered in blood, also washed their clothes clean at the pub bar.
Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha has order the pub to close for 90 days. A thorough check on the activities of all after-hours venues on Phuket is expected.
As horrible as this incident is, it's unfortunately not unique but perhaps the fact that the victims were HiSo is a strike of luck for Phuket.
International coverage of what goes on in Phuket is in my humble opinion the best (if not only) hope to create enough pressure for BKK to step in and show the local bigwigs who exercises ultimate authority.
Maybe we just got a step closer to opening the can of worms.
Posted by Steve C. on January 6, 2012 00:15