Fisticuffs at Sundance

PARK CITY — After a screening of the earth-friendly enviro-documentary "Dirt! The Movie" at the Sundance Film Festival, film critic John Anderson, who was reviewing the flick for Variety, got into a fistfight with the film's publicity rep, Jeff "The Dude" Dowd, at a hotel, the L.A. Times reports.

Things got so heated that the hotel called police, though no one has pressed charges.

Anderson called the film "too simplistic, too redundant." Dowd, who was the inspiration behind Jeff Bridges' character, the Dude, in "The Big Lebowski," was undaunted.

"You've got so much power — before you write this we should have more discussion," he said in an absurd overestimation of critics' cultural influence.

Said Anderson, "If you don't get away from me, I'll punch you out!"

— McClatchy-Tribune Information Services