Molly Simms

Tommy Hilfiger and Axl Rose Bar Fight

James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Sunday, May 21, 2006

Axl Rose says Tommy Hilfiger fights like a girl. And we’re not talking Jennifer Garner here.

It was a one-two encounter between Axl Rose and Tommy Hilfiger. The rocker and designer capped a Thursday evening out at a new club called The Plumm in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood with midnight fisticuffs. “There was an issue between the two of them,” Plumm owner Noel Ashman told The Associated Press.

The scuffle reportedly started after the Guns N’ Roses front man moved the drink of Hilfiger’s girlfriend, Dee Ocleppo. “I moved his girlfriend’s drink so it wouldn’t spill,” Rose told the Los Angeles radio station KROQ on Friday. “It was the most surreal thing, I think, that’s ever happened to me in my life.” According to the 44-year-old singer, Hilfiger, 55, smacked him in the arm and told him to put the drink back. “He just kept smacking me,” Rose said.

Attempts to reach Hilfiger or a representative were not immediately successful.

Rose was there to play a surprise set for “Rent” actress Rosario Dawson for her 27th birthday party. At the time of the dustup, The Plumm was packed with a celebrity crowd including Lenny Kravitz, Mickey Rourke, Kid Rock, Peter Beard, Molly Simms, Wentworth Miller, Ann Dexter Jones, Lydia Hearst and Damon Dash.

Rose did perform, and dedicated the song “You’re Crazy” to “my good friend Tommy Hilfiger.”

I’m not sure what’s lamer, Hilfiger or that the “celebrity crowd” consists mostly of people I’ve never heard of.

Update: More from the NY Post. It gets lamer:

Tommy Hilfiger really showed his “Appetite for Destruction” yesterday when he pummeled Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose in a dispute over a VIP table at Rosario Dawson’s birthday party, sources said. The midnight turf battle erupted when Axl moved Hilfiger’s girlfriend’s drink in the banquette area of The Plumm nightclub on West 14th Street - where the “Rent” actress was celebrating her 27th birthday.

A densely packed crowd of celebs - including Lenny Kravitz and Kid Rock - had ringside seats to the battle. The feisty fashionista was acting all gangsta, hitting Axl with a flurry of punches, one that landed under Rose’s eye. “First [Axl and Tommy] were sitting. Then they were pulling on each other . . . It got so out of control,” said a shocked witness. As the punch-up escalated, Hilfiger introduced Rose to some “November Pain” with a blow to the cheek. Club guards quickly tried to separate the men. “A bunch of security ran over - but Tommy would not back down. He was just out to take him down,” the witness said. “Kid Rock got trampled by people running over. It was unbelievable.” Eventually, the designer’s own bodyguard pulled him out of the club.

Yesterday, club owner Noel Ashman pointed the finger at Hilfiger: “Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate, as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger.”

Rose said the attack was unprovoked, in an interview with The Post in his dressing room. The singer said Hilfiger may have been angry because he’d been told to move to make room for Rose and his entourage. Rose described Hilfiger as “foaming at the mouth.” When Rose took the stage a few minutes later to perform the song “You’re Crazy,” he dedicated it “to my good friend Tommy Hilfiger.”

Kid Rock, wearing a black-brimmed hat and smoking a cigar, took his fellow rocker’s side, and explained that Hilfiger was upset because he is way further down on the fame food chain. The hierarchy, according to Kid Rock, begins with mere mortals and works its way up to sports stars. “After that it’s movie stars, then rock stars, then Michael Jordan.” Hilfiger is somewhere between a mere mortal and a sports star in this ranking.

There you have it.

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