Keifer Sutherland got into a fight at an after party for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s star-studded Costume Institute Gala. The 42 year-old star of “24” headbutted a designer, breaking the guy’s nose and sending him to the hospital. According to different accounts, designer Jack McCollough either knocked over or bumped into Brooke Shields and Sutherland rushed to her defense, telling McCollough to apologize. McCollough refused and pushed Sutherland instead, which prompted Sutherland to headbutt him in the face. Shields rep says that there was no incident with his client which would have made Sutherland come to her defense:

Women’s wear designer Jack McCollough found that out the hard way when he cut between Jack’s alter-ego, Kiefer Sutherland, and Brooke Shields as they were schmoozing at a SoHo nightspot and got a whopping head-butt from the “24” star, police said.

Some witnesses said McCollough, co-founder of the white-hot Proenza Schouler label, suffered a broken nose in the bell-ringing Tuesday morning at SubMercer, but he told cops all he got was a small cut on his schnoz.
Investigators from the 1st Precinct have the misdemeanor case now and are reaching out to Sutherland to get his side of the story.

Some witnesses said Sutherland went into action hero mode after McCollough bumped into Shields as she and Sutherland talked at the bar about 2 a.m.

Sutherland took offense and demanded the designer apologize to Shields.

But the two men got into a heated argument that ended with Sutherland head-butting McCollough, a police source said.

Shields, who may be talking to cops today, apparently is taking McCollough’s side.

Her reps say the designer did nothing to deserve the head-butt and although Shields did get jostled, possibly off her feet, “nothing happened to her.”

McCollough told investigators Sutherland “was drunk and obnoxious and wouldn’t back down or be logical.”
He said Sutherland “pulled this stupid wrestling move like a teenager,” then slammed McCollough in the face.
A police source quoted McCollough as saying the dustup “wasn’t even over anything . . . he was just roiling drunk and looking for something to smack. It didn’t matter what.”

[From The Ny Daily News]

Sutherland spent the 2007-2008 holiday season in Glendale City Jail, where he served a full 49 day sentence for a September, 2007 DUI, his second in under three years. With his second DUI he violated probation for his previous DUI from 2004. The judge presiding over his case was Judge Michael Sauer, who put Paris Hilton in jail for a full 45 days for just driving on a suspended license.

With this latest fight, Sutherland has violated probation for his last DUI, although it’s unknown if he’ll have to face charges back in California. The guy went to jail for over a month and a half and was also assigned six months of weekly therapy, five years probation, and an 18-month alcohol education program. Considering that he only got out of jail in January, 2008, he’s probably still in alcohol education classes. He’s been seen getting wasted all over NY and this latest incident just makes the fact that he’s fallen off the wagon all the more public.

Sutherland is one of the highest paid stars on television and according to AOL Television makes $13 million a year.

Kiefer Sutherland is shown outside the Late Show on 4/27/09. Credit: WENN.com