Colombian journalists said Wednesday they had been assaulted by bodyguards of controversial U.S. actor Charlie Sheen, who is staying in the Caribbean city of Cartagena.
According to radio station Caracol, the bodyguards pushed, kicked and punched a television reporter, her cameraman and a photographer of Colombia’s leading daily El Tiempo when the actor was leaving a restaurant in the walled city on Tuesday evening.
The journalists said the bodyguards tried to take the photographer’s camera by force and kicked and punched the RCN journalist and her cameraman.
“It is okay that they try to protect the actor because that is their job, but this aggression is not necessary, because we also are doing our job,” RCN reporter Ivonne Salamanca was quoted as saying by the radio station.
Sheen’s surprise visit to Colombia’s tourism hotspot caused a buzz in both local and U.S. media. After initially joking that the actor’s visit to Colombia had to do with his preference for cocaine, gossip website TMZ later reported that the actor is scouting locations for a film he is planning to produce.