In U.K.: Pop's Winehouse, Soccer's Gerrard Not Guilty
She's innocent. Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
For those of us in the USA, the equivalent might be hearing on the same day that actress Lindsay Lohan and football's Plaxico Burress had been cleared of their latest wrong-doings.
In Britain today, "a judge has acquitted Amy Winehouse of assaulting a fan who asked to take her picture," the Associated Press writes. And, Reuters adds, " Liverpool (soccer) captain Steven Gerrard was cleared on Friday of attacking a businessman in a bar brawl, the Press Association reported."
The two stars had remarkably similar defenses:
On the Winehouse case, The Daily Telegraph writes that:
The 25-year-old singer was accused of hitting burlesque dancer Sherene Flash in the face while backstage at the Prince's Trust Ball in Berkeley Square, central London, last September. ... But Winehouse denied assaulting the dancer and insisted she was intimidated and scared by the drunken Miss Flash, who was demanding a photograph with the star.
As for Gerrard, The Guardian says:
Liverpool crown court heard that Marcus McGee, 34, was punched in the face by the footballer in a brawl at a bar in Southport last December. Gerrard admitted hitting McGee three times but denied affray, saying he had been acting in self-defence as he thought the other man was about to strike him.
Merriam-Webster, by the way, defines affray as "a fight between two or more people in a public place that disturbs the peace."