Posted 3/25/2004 09:01:00 PM by Douglas

If you're going to verbally insult Richard Simmons at an airport, you'd better hope he doesn't hear you.

Then, while waiting in line for his flight to Los Angeles, he was spotted by another man. According to the police report, the man said, "Hey everybody, it's Richard Simmons, let's drop our bags and rock to the '50s."

Simmons, who'd obviously left his sense of humor at home, told cops he took offense and had to "bitch slap" the man, or so a Phoenix police sergeant recounts to Reuters.

The alleged victim, 23-year-old Chris Farney, claims Simmons' smackdown came with the warning, "It's not nice to make fun of people with issues," per the police report, a copy of which is online at The Smoking Gun.

Farney, a 6-foot-1-inch-tall Harley Davidson salesman and cage wrestler, was not injured, but he told police he wanted to press charges against the 5-foot-seven, 155-pound 55-year-old aerobics impresario--despite receiving a personal apology from Simmons. Farney told police he didn't think it was right for people to go around and slap others.

I can imagine a tense day after this event in the Harley Davidson dealership: "So lemme get this straight, Chris. You got bitch-slapped by who???"