Gene Hackman Slaps Homeless Man

Is this the state of chivalry? Actor Gene Hackman admitted on Tuesday that he had slapped a homeless man in Santa Fe, N.M., —but he insisted he had done it after the man used a derogatory term to describe Hackman’’s wife. Hackman, 82, said the man had approached him and his wife, Betsy, in a menacing manner and uttered a derogatory comment at Betsy, causing Hackman to allegedly slap him. The man called police, saying Hackman had beat him up, but Sgt. Andrea Dobyns said it appeared that “Hackman acted purely out of self-defense to protect himself and his wife.”