Jude Law was having a good run. His run in Hamlet has gotten him some of the best reviews of his life. He’s taking the play to Broadway, where the accolades will probably continue. He’s single and mingling. He’s been photographed with several attractive women, and rumored to be in some kind of love triangle with Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio. In other words, Jude Law is back on top! Unfortunately, that’s just when something bad happens.

It happened last night. After his play, Jude went for a late-night dinner in London, hosted by The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. As Jude was exiting the restaurant, something happened. Jude either consciously attacked a female photographer, hitting her in the face, or Jude was blinded by the camera flashes, and a little drunk, and he put up his hand to get his bearings, and he accidentally hit this woman. Jude’s version is the one that has him accidentally hitting the woman, and apologizing for it at the time. The woman’s version has Jude as some kind of violent misogynist. The Daily Mail has some of the photos from the incident here, and here’s the rundown of events:

A female photographer is today considering pressing charges against Jude Law after he hit her while leaving a central London restaurant in the early hours of this morning. The actor appeared to strike the 28-year-old paparazzo as she took pictures of him leaving a celebrity dinner party at Automat in Dover Street, Mayfair.

Harsha Gopal claimed the attack was unprovoked, and added: ‘He hit me full on the face, it was a real stinger, it was very sore.’

Jude was at a dinner hosted by movie director Christopher Nolan, where other guests included Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay- Z and singer Michelle Williams. As he left the eatery at 1am he appeared to throw a hand towards Harsha’s face, leaving her reeling away in pain.

She was among a group of other photographers who had assembled outside to catch the A-list crowd on their way out.

She added: ‘It was really loud – there was a massive thud and my face is still stinging today. It was deliberate – you could see it in his face. Maybe he didn’t realise he was hitting a girl, but he could at least apologise.’

Jude Law’s lawyer Graham Shear today called the claims ‘nonsense’ and added: ‘Last night’s incident was an accident. Jude was blinded by the camera flashes when he left the restaurant, raised his hand to shield himself and inadvertently struck somebody standing very close. He apologised and left’

Harsha was resting up today and suffered no injuries, but is now considering whether to press charges against the 36-year-old.

Jude was arrested after allegedly assaulting a photographer near his Maida Vale home in 2007, although he denied the claims and the case was dropped.

[From The Daily Mail]

I tend to think Jude’s version of events is probably closer to reality. He had just come out of the restaurant, he probably was a little drunk, and then he gets blinded by the flashbulbs. In the photos from the incident, Jude looks a little out of it, he doesn’t look malicious. You can see that he seems surprised and annoyed that he made physical contact with one of the photographers – at least that’s how I’m reading it. Maybe it will all go away if Jude issues a sincere apology to this woman, and continues to stick by his story that it was all an accident.