Not Amusing

While I seem to be the only one surprised by Mayor Williams's gruff behavior, count me among the unsurprised when it comes to today's item from Page Six:

PAPARAZZI, beware: Don't take Joe Pesci's picture without his permission--it might get you a fat lip. That's what college student Juan Carlos Montenegro, 24, claims happened to him when he snapped the 62-year-old star of "Goodfellas" and "Casino" in a shopping center parking lot in Boca Raton, Fla., on Sunday. Montenegro told local cops Pesci popped him in the upper lip and said, "You shouldn't have been interrupting my business." Montenegro said in a police report that he repeatedly told Pesci he was a big fan and asked if he could take his picture. But the Oscar winner growled, "Not now," and kept walking to his car. After he took the shots anyway, a "furious" Pesci let him have it, according to the report. A spokesman for Pesci declined to comment yesterday

I know this behavior is inexcusable but just a few thoughts: One, Pesci did tell him not to take the picture and he did. Two, Montenegro should count himself lucky. He could have found himself stomped on, pistol-whipped, smashed with a car door, stabbed with a pen, shot in the foot, stabbed with a butcher knife, his eye popped out by means of a vice, or with an ice pick jabbed into his brain.