There’s this doubtful story that Elle Macpherson was almost mugged across the street from an event. She was said to have felled the mugger with her skill in, uh, Tai Chi. I took Tai Chi for a while and found it kind of mentally taxing but boring overall. It’s a meditative martial art and goes really slow. How anyone could use Tai Chi to kick someone’s ass is beyond me. It seems more likely that Macpherson distracted the guy with her great boobs, which were on full display that night.

Our suitably impressed source said: “Elle’s car stopped across the road from the party as there was a snarl-up outside Koko, so she jogged across to get into it.

“Everyone was watching her – well it’s hard not to – and we all just looked on in horror as we saw a figure in a hoody come out of the shadows.

“It looked like a man, about 6ft 2in and stocky. We were all panicked but the traffic was in full flow so everyone just ended up gawping in horror.

“It turned out that he didn’t stand a chance, though. As soon as he grabbed for Elle’s bag she swung around quite calmly, just went for his arm and got her bag… it looked so simple.

“The mugger reacted like he’d been floored and staggered back, then ran for it. The lights changed and we tried to follow but he managed to get away.”

And according to friends of the super supermodel, her swift reaction to the nasty ne’er-do-well is all down to the hours of body work she puts in.

A mole told us: “Elle practises T’ai Chi which is one of the softer martial arts but a martial art nevertheless. It’s primarily used for meditation and for toning the body.

“But it does, after a certain level, ensure that the pupil is proficient in self-defence. It’s also brilliant at developing core strength.

If that’s true then Elle deserves a lot of credit for fending off a mugger with her bare hands. It sounds like something out of a movie – a half-dressed former supermodel uses slow-mo martial arts on a street thug.