Ukrainian prankster Vitalii Sediuk has been taken into police custody and is being accused of attacking Brad Pitt at the red carpet premiere of Maleficent, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
“At around 7.30 p.m., Brad Pitt was at the El Capitan Theatre on the red carpet when a male jumped over the barricade and made contact with him,” an LAPD spokesperson tells THR.
PHOTOS: Prankster Vitalii Sediuk and His Celebrity Victims: Crotch Hugs, Goat’s Milk and Hydrangeas
Sediuk, 25, was arrested and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and held at the LAPD’s Hollywood station in lieu of $20,000 bail. Witnesses report seeing a man approach Pitt and either punch or slap him in the face. The man quickly was taken down by security guards at the Hollywood Boulevard theater and was escorted away in handcuffs.
Sediuk has a long history of red carpet shenanigans. He gained notoriety after Will Smith slapped the prankster for attempting to kiss him at the Russian premiere of Men in Black III. More recently, he made waves at Cannes for hiding under America Ferrera‘s dress at the How to Train Your Dragon 2 premiere.
And the list goes on. At this year’s SAG Awards, he aggressively hugged Bradley Cooper‘s crotch. Police detained him outside last year’s Oscars, where he showed up wearing a Bjork-inspired swan dress. Weeks before that, he was jailed for storming the Grammys stage during Adele‘s acceptance speech.
Pitt was not injured in Wednesday’s incident and continued to greet fans on the red carpet. His longtime partner, Angelina Jolie, stars in Disney’s Maleficent, which box-office observers say could make as much as $60 million when it opens this weekend.
Pitt’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a rep for his production company, Plan B Entertainment.
