Actor and comedian Tom Arnold and actress Roma Downey had each made accusations of physical attacks that involved Downey’s husband, The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett. The altercation, supported by Arnold’s lawyer (who is saying Burnett instigated the attack), occurred at Sunday’s Evening Before Emmy party, a fundraiser for the Motion Picture Television Fund.
A member of the LAPD spoke to Deadline confirming “a battery report was made at the West L.A. station. No arrest was made,” noting that the alleged incident is under investigation by detectives. The report by Arnold was filed at around 10 AM PST the following day- just over 12 hours after the incident occurred. Sources note that Arnold was behind the Survivor EP at the Emmys gathering and what seemed to be approaching Burnett, who was in the UK Special Forces, before the less than 30-second dust-up happened.
Arnold has also been publicly bothering Burnett for months over his insistence that he [Burnett] is protecting Donald Trump by refusing to release certain outtakes from The Apprentice in which Trump has again been alleged to using racial slurs and makes other disturbing comments. This has been an ongoing issue between the two since July. Trump had even tweeted about it in August.
Burnett could not be reached for a comment. However, both him and MGM, who own The Apprentice franchise, have asserted in the past that the studio does not have the legal right to release outtakes from the show. Arnold is hosting a reality series for Viceland dubbed “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,” which premiered today, September 18th. There haven’t been any recent updates as of late.