A warrant for Cuba Gooding Jr.’s arrest was issued on Tuesday after he was accused of shoving a female bartender in New Orleans. According to the police, Gooding got aggravated when tourists were taking pictures of him while he was at The Olde Absinthe House on Bourbon Street.
“There has been an arrest warrant issued for [Gooding Jr.] for municipal battery,” Remi Braden, the Director of Public Affairs for the New Orleans Police Department, said in an interview with Celebuzz. “Apparently he pushed a bartender twice at the bar.”
The bartender approached the actor to get him to calm down but the aggressive behavior continued and he took an open palm and shoved her. One of her co-workers called the police and after being alerted about the police coming, Gooding allegedly shoved the bartender again and left the scene, according to a statement by the police.
A lawyer for the Academy Award-winning Jerry Maguire actor has spoken out about the allegations and says Gooding is “taking necessary actions” to respond to the warrant. Gooding was in New Orleans filming scenes for The Butler, a film with a star-studded cast, including Oprah Winfrey, Lenny Kravitz and Jane Fonda.
This is the second time Gooding has had a run-in with the law for putting his hands on a woman in less than six months. In March, he was accused of groping several women and punching a guy trying to take his picture while in a bar in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When TMZ asked about that incident, he responded by saying the allegations are “bulls—t.”
Gooding has struggled in his career of late, not equaling the highs he experienced in the 1990’s with films like Boyz N the Hood, A Few Good Men and Jerry Maguire. He had a role in Red Tails earlier this year, his first appearance in a major Hollywood production since Denzel Washington’s American Gangster in 2007.
