Madonna's Boyfriend Arrested

LONDON (AP) â€” Madonna's film director boyfriend was arrested for pushing an ``alleged fan'' who tried to open the pregnant singer's car door after harassing the couple for five months,

Friday, May 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LONDON (AP) â€” Madonna's film director boyfriend was arrested for pushing an ``alleged fan'' who tried to open the pregnant singer's car door after harassing the couple for five months, the boyfriend's spokesman said Friday.

Guy Ritchie, director of the British hit ``Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,'' was questioned for an hour after the incident Wednesday and then released, said his spokesman, Kris Thykier.

Police would release no details of the case, but said a decision would be made June 1 whether to press any charges. The name of the 20-year-old man who lodged the complaint was not disclosed.

The altercation took place about 1 a.m. Wednesday outside the home shared by Ritchie, 31, and Madonna, 41, in the upscale west London neighborhood of Kensington.

``The incident involved a certain individual, an alleged fan, who's been hassling them for five months,'' Thykier said. ``He sometimes calls himself a fan; he sometimes calls himself a free-lance photographer. ... He's gatecrashed parties, he hangs around their house, and he always bangs on the car doors and windows when they come and go.''

The night of the scuffle, the spokesman said, ``They were on their way out to dinner, when the guy actually tried to open the car door on Madonna's side. When they came back later that evening, the guy blocked them and wouldn't let them park the car. He was flashing them through the window with his camera and he tried to open Madonna's door.

``Guy pushed the guy. I'm not trying to justify what he did, but he'd had enough. His girlfriend is five months pregnant, after all.''

Thykier said the man was unhurt, but called both the police and an ambulance. The ambulance workers left after saying the man needed no treatment, but police were obliged to investigate, Thykier said.

In 1996, a man was ordered jailed for 10 years in California after being convicted of stalking Madonna, making terroristic threats and assault. He had been shot by a bodyguard after scaling a wall to enter the grounds of the singer's Hollywood Hills estate.

In October, police at London's Heathrow Airport escorted Madonna off a British Airways jet after airline staff received a threat to kill her. The caller had details of her travel arrangements.

Madonna put her $6 million home in London's Chelsea neighborhood back on the market earlier this year after her advisers warned her it was too visible for a celebrity.

Madonna and Ritchie announced in March that they were expecting a child. The singer divorced actor Sean Penn in 1989, and has a 3-year-old daughter, Lourdes, from her relationship with Carlos Leon.