Refusing to put up with the lack of privacy, Hocus Pocus star Thora Birch and her husband, Michael Benton Adler, confront an autograph hound who had been allegedly following them.
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According to TMZ, the incident occurred on Saturday when the man started following the couple outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills after the BAFTA Tea Party. The former child actress’s husband claimed the man had been harassing her all weekend, and enough was enough.
“I’ll f—ing knock you out,” Birch is heard telling the autograph seeker at the start of a video of the incident.
Adler then stepped in between his wife and the man, who told the couple, “You’re on video. You’re on video for that.”
When Adler asked if he should care about video, the man replied, “You should.”
“Are you threatening me?” The Hocus Pocus star’s husband asked the man. To which the man denied threatening, while Adler asked the question again.
“You hit me,” the autograph seeker alleged.
Adler replied, “What? I didn’t hit!”
After the man accused him of hitting him before the video started, Adler started laughing.
Meanwhile, Birch walked back to the autograph hound and yelled, “Did you just call f—ing call him trash?”
As Adler attempted to remove his wife from the situation again, the man continued to antagonize the couple by accusing Adler of tearing up photos that he wanted Birch to sign. “Why did you tear my photos, motherf—er? Give me 30 bucks!”
Another bystander appeared to try encourage the trio to stop fighting. “People live here,” he reminded them.
The Hocus Pocus Actress’ Husband Released a Statement Following the Intense Autograph Hound Encounter
Following the incident, Birch’s husband released a statement.
“For all you people out there, don’t listen to this stuff,” Adler said in a personal recorded video. “These people are wrong. They’re bad people. All we were trying to do is walk out.”
He also told TMZ, “Thora Birch and I wanted to address the incident Saturday. We are deeply regretful for its escalation. As we left an event, my wife, Thora, was accosted by a professional autograph seeker who followed us to our car from a private area.”
“Thora was trying to deescalate the situation,” the actress’ husband then pointed out. “She is Jewish and has close family in Israel and was simply trying to place an accent. Again, we deeply apologize for this being misunderstood.”