Victoria Principal, the tightly-pulled former actress who now hawks facial products on QVC, has quite the temper. Her maid was out walking Victoria’s dog, and had the nerve to take more time doing it than Victoria felt acceptable. Reprimanding the maid would have been ridiculous, considering it wasn’t exactly an offense. Most people would say something along the lines of, “You don’t need to spend that long walking Rusty, but thank you for trying to be thorough.”

Instead, Victoria immediately fired the woman, and then pointed a gun at her. She hadn’t even told the woman to leave. She even told another maid to move out of the way so that she could shoot her. Talk about keeping your cool under pressure.

Perhaps Victoria Principal thinks she’s gone from Dallas to Dynasty, because she may have pulled quite the Alexis Carrington. The erstwhile Pamela Ewing is the target of an assault lawsuit brought by a former maid who claims Principal pulled a gun on her after she took too long walking the actress’ dog one evening.

According to the complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, before she allegedly brandished a firearm, Principal fired housekeeper Maribel Banegas and told her to leave after accusing her of staying away from the house for too long with the pooch.

Principal then went upstairs, returning not with her checkbook as Banegas expected but with a gun in her hand, the former maid says. The 59-year-old then aimed the weapon at Banegas and threatened to kill her, even asking another housekeeper who was in the room to step aside so she could shoot Banegas, the lawsuit claims.

Figuring her “death by shooting” was imminent, Banegas locked herself in another room and called 911. Principal stood outside the door the whole time, the lawsuit says, persisting in her threat to kill the plaintiff. Banegas couldn’t leave Principal’s Malibu home until law enforcement arrived, she says.

In alleging assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, Banegas is suing for lost wages and unspecified damages. She also checked off “malice” and “oppression” in asking for exemplary damages from Principal for showing a “willful and conscious disregard” for her ex-employee’s rights and safety.

[From E! News]

I would have wrestled the gun from Victoria’s hands, just because I would have been so pissed that this woman was so mentally deranged. I’m not saying it’s a smart plan, but I would have gone for it, nonetheless. I cannot even begin to imagine what really went on here. I hope to God lots of details were left out of this story. Going upstairs – ostensibly to pay your just fired maid’s remaining wages – and returning with a gun instead is so insane Principal should be locked up in a nuthouse if it’s true.

Form the maid’s account, it’s not like she told her to get out and she refused, thus a gun was “needed.” It was just “You exist, I’m going to shoot you. Move other maid; you’re getting in the way of my shooting.” Logic would say tons of important details are missing. Though it also seems like logic isn’t at play here.

Update: Victoria’s filed a counter-suit with her version of events. They don’t sound implausible, and if we’d heard her account first more people might side with her. She admits pulling a gun on the maid but has a reasonable explanation. In fact most of what she says fills in many of the holes.

Here’s Victoria Principal at the Publicists Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2007. Hope her publicist gets an award for cleaning up this mess. Images thanks to WENN.com .