DOHA, Qatar — Film star Omar Sharif appeared to slap a young woman fan during an appearance Thursday at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar, with the incident caught on video.
The 79-year-old star of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” was posing on the red carpet when the woman approached him, hoping for a photograph.
A video taken from behind the woman shows Sharif swing his right arm, but it was not clear where he struck her. TMZ reported that a journalist who witnessed the incident tweeted, “Omar Sharif just hit a woman. Very stupidly, in front of a camera.”
The Washington Post translated the dressing-down he then gave the woman, reporting that he said, “I told you I’d get to you afterwards! I just said that and you’re standing here. Put something in your brain!”
He then apologized to the woman, who kept smiling throughout the exchange, and posed for a photograph with her.
Sharif’s history of violence includes attacking a policeman at a Paris casino in 2003 and beating up a parking attendant in Los Angeles four years later.