Badly Falling Out Boy

Pete Wentz, spokesperson for deodorant companies and occasional band member, got involved in some sort of scuffle with a heckler at a party following Fall Out Boy's gig in Chicago. Early reports suggested that Wentz attacked the bloke for making fun of his hooded top; Wentz, of course, says that that simply isn't true:

"The story on the Internet is absolutely false," he wrote in an e-mail. "Yes, we were playing an acoustic afterparty for Spin. It was a good time for the most part. Yes, the guy was heckling me and the band, so were other people, most in good fun. But we get heckled onstage all the time, and while I'm a jerk, I'm not the kind of person who would ever lash out at someone simply over this. I mean I'm not as big as Akon and haven't written as many good songs.

"The truth is on the way out the door I had to pass directly next to the guy and I knew it, so I kept my head down and walked out. As I did, the guy reached out and grabbed me and said something I couldn't really hear — it was a glorious use of the English language, though. As he grabbed me, I punched him. Yell all you want at me, say whatever, but in a situation like that I will defend myself. After that, of course, it got chaotic, [but] we have several independent witnesses that gave statements saying he grabbed me first ... I am not worried over the outcome, as I was clearly in the right. Anything anyone else is saying or writing is simply not true."

Is our memory playing tricks, or is this pretty much the same line John Prescott took when he beat up a member of the electorate during the election before last?