Actor Penn Fined $100 for Attack on 2 Journalists

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Actor Sean Penn was fined $100 and given a suspended 90-day jail term Thursday after pleading no contest to charges that he attacked two British journalists who tried to photograph pop star Madonna outside a hotel.

Ian Markham-Smith, 33, a free-lance reporter, and photographer Laurence Cottrell, 30, said Penn attacked them on June 30 outside Nashville’s Maxwell House Hotel as Madonna watched. The journalists told police they had hoped to get an interview and pictures of Penn and Madonna, who then was his fiancee.

Madonna and Penn were married on Aug. 16 in Malibu.