Gerard Butler charged with battery

updated 6:45 p.m. ET May 14, 2009

LOS ANGELES - City prosecutors have charged Gerard Butler with misdemeanor battery in connection with a scuffle with a paparazzo.

Records show prosecutors filed the charge in a Hollywood courthouse on Wednesday.

Los Angeles City Attorney spokesman Frank Mateljan said Butler faces up to six months in jail if convicted.

Mateljan said the Scottish-born actor had a run-in with a photographer early on Oct. 7 in Hollywood after leaving a premiere party for the film “RocknRolla.”

Butler’s manager, Alan Siegel, said that the actor was forced to have his driver stop the car after a paparazzo repeatedly sped through red lights and almost struck two pedestrians.

The actor’s attorney, Blair Berk, said Butler is not required to — and won’t — appear in court on the charge.

Butler, 39, is perhaps best-known for his role in 2006’s hit “300,” and starred in “RocknRolla.” Butler’s next big screen release will be this summer’s “The Ugly Truth,” a romantic comedy also starring Katherine Heigl.

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