NEW YORK CITY: Theater Critic Tosses Cell Phone Of Audience Member

Two days ago libertarian author and National Review theater critic Kevin D. Williamson was slapped by an audience member sitting next to him after he grabbed her cell phone and threw it towards the exit. He was then ejected by theater management. The incident has since spawned discussions on numerous sites, but not everybody is defending his action. Today Williamson spoke to Playbill.

"It's bench seating there in the back, so she was basically in my lap," said Williamson. "I asked her politely if she'd put [her cell phone] away because it was distracting, and her response was, 'So don't look.'" After a back-and-forth argument, Williamson grabbed the patron's cell phone and tossed it across the room — aiming for the exit. The angered theatregoer slapped Williamson and "stormed out," crossing directly in front of the action in Natasha, Pierre. "Maybe ten minutes later," Williamson continued, "the security guy came and got me, and that was that." "At that point, there was already a fair disruption underway," he said. "She'd gotten quite loud when I was trying to talk her into behaving herself. Yeah, unquestionably what I did was a disruption, [but] I think I can make the case that I did it in the greater good, [although] it wasn't quiet."

Williamson's Twitter feed has been quite active since the phone-throwing.