FAME PICTURES

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has taken a pass on Sean Penn.

Allegations that the Oscar winner kicked and slugged a paparazzo who tried to snap a few shots of Penn at the Brentwood Country Mart have been referred to to the L.A. City Attorney's Office for consideration after prosecutors concluded that Penn's actions didn't constitute a felony.

The City Attorney's Office will determine whether the Milk star should face misdemeanor charges.

Shutterbug Jordan Dawes filed a battery report against Penn early last month, saying the hotheaded actor came at him kicking and screaming when he started taking photos of him from 50 feet away.

"I'm all bruised up…I empathize with the photographers now, I really do," Dawes told E! News at the time. "It's horrifying."

We say no wonder Penn keeps fleeing for places like Cuba.

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Whether you agree with Sean Penn's politics or not, he's convinced he's doing good, just like the celebs in our Do-Gooder Gallery.

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One of Hollywood's most vociferous liberals, Sean Penn, is back doing his favorite thing: riling Americans with his controversial travels. (Or is his favorite thing getting nominated for Oscars? It's a toss-up.)

The two-time Academy Award winner has embarked on a short trip to Cuba as a journalist on assignment for Vanity Fair and The Huffington Post.

Rumor has it he's there to interview Fidel Castro; however, his rep tells E! News the actor has no set plans to meet with former Cuban leader.

But that's not to say they won't meet up...

Especially considering Sean has already met and written about Castro.

This is just one more stop on the Sean Penn Journalist Tour, which has also included visits to Iraq, Iran and Venezuela. The actor provides lengthy candid accounts of his trips "in hopes of demythologizing” these places as he believes America is "becoming increasingly gullible to the demonizing of foreign states or leaders."

But will anyone be able to get past the fact that the man shoving his political beliefs in our faces is just an actor and not a newsman?

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Enough with the politics! Where are famous people getting their pumpkins? That's what we all want to know, and we have the answers right here.

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Life is like a box of chocolates...and Robin Wright Penn is going through a bunch of icky crème-filled ones right now. Or something like that.

The Forrest Gump star and soon-to-be former Mrs. Sean Penn opens up in the November issue of Redbook about her pending divorce from her Oscar-winning hubby and the new life that awaits her and their two children, 18-year-old daughter Dylan and 16-year-old son Hopper.

"It never [feels good]," she says of their uncoupling, which has been playing in the tabloids after several unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation.

"Yes, it's divorce; it's a given that it will be public. But...it's so disrespectful. "You're an actress, you owe us this?' F--- you,' is what I say."

And, boy, that's not all she says...

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The paparazzo in the alleged Sean Penn scuffle is not taking his supposed altercation with the actor lying down. 

Photographer and documentarian Jordan Dawes told E! News exclusively that he filed a report against the Oscar winner for battery after the incident occurred Friday afternoon. 

"We can confirm that a battery report involving a member of the paparazzi was taken on Friday the 2nd at about 1:15 p.m. in the 300 block of Mesa Drive, but we are not confirming the names in the complaint," officer Karen Rayner of LAPD Media Relations said.

According to Dawes, he and four other photographers and videographers were waiting at the Brentwood Country Mart for the Milk star that afternoon. When Penn got out of his car, the photog started snapping pictures of the actor from his vehicle, which he claims was parked about 50 feet away from Penn. 

When Dawes got out of his car and started taking photos of Penn, that's when the photog said Penn approached him. 

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On the bright side, it looks like Sean Penn's pretty limber for a guy pushing 50.

But about that high kick to a paparazzo...

Flynet Pictures is claiming that the two-time Oscar winner "attacked" one of its shooters. Penn, the agency alleges, "emerged from his truck and walked over 50 feet towards the photog and kicked and punched him without provocation.

"Penn also berated the photog with obscenities and shouted that he would 'put you in a box' to the photog before going back to his house."

The photog "suffered multiple cuts and bruises from the attack, has filed a police report and is considering pressing charges for battery."

No word on whether a lawsuit is in the works, but in cases like this, a police report can be a precursor to a civil action.

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StarTracks

What a weekend for New Yorkers!

With the MTV Video Music Awards, Fashion Week, U.S. Open and all the star-studded parties that come with them, so much fun stuff went down.

Let's start with the leggy.

Newly separated (again!) Sean Penn stepped out with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Jessica White to celebrate fellow catwalker Noemie Leonior's birthday at new hotspot Abe & Arthur's on Saturday night.

The following evening, Jay-Z's sleek VMAs after-party took over 1Oak, which included guests from Rihanna and Beyoncé to Justin Timberlake and Jessica Alba.

Outside, however, things took a dustier turn when Diddy had a "misunderstanding," as his rep tells E! News, with some cops. Worry not—the NYPD says no arrests were made, and all related parties seem to think the situation was "blown out of proportion."

Elsewhere...

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The duo may be lacking the official paperwork, but Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn's marriage remains unofficially broken.

Wright Penn says in the September issue of More that, despite reports that their relationship is on the mend following yet another aborted attempt at separation, she and her husband of nearly 13 years are still estranged.

"I hit that crossroad a while ago—for Robin, the 'I know what I don't want' [sign] was flashing neon lights," she says. "I have no regrets. I, we, have two amazing children we raised together."

In May, Penn withdrew the couple's second petition in as many years to split up, calling it an "arrogant mistake" on his part, and in June he dropped out of two films to focus on family matters.

Wright Penn talked to More a few months ago, but the mag maintains the Princess Bride star's position has not changed.

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Anita Bugge/Getty Images

•  Those dastardly lad mags have made Megan Fox No. 2 yet again! First, Maxim places Olivia Wilde just ahead of the starlet and this time the Transformers hottie loses to British babe, Cheryl Cole, from the group, Girls Aloud, for the FHM title.

•  Robin Wright Penn opened up to a psychology magazine just before her latest round of off-again, on-again union with husband Sean Penn. "All marriages have their cycles and phases," she said forebodingly.

•  Paris Hilton was peeved when her bodyguards supposedly found some sort of recording transmitter in her Dubai hotel room. In the meantime, the BFF seeker may be in a little hot water for donning a bikini in the conservative Arab nation.

•  All kinds of TV babies are on their way! Scrubs star Judy Reyes and her boyfriend, director George Valencia, are expecting their first child. Additionally, 24 and HawthoRNe actor D.B. Woodside and gal pal, Golden Brooks of Girlfriends fame, are anticipating a child together, due in September.

•  Amy Winehouse may be beachy keen on moving to St. Lucia for good.

•  Dear Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal: You two are cute enough as it is. Is it really necessary to match for your workouts? Love, Rise 'n' Shine

All this drama calls for a refreshing trip through the pretty Beach Bodies gallery.

We're hot too...on Twitter @eonline!

LEFRANC/BENAINOUS/GAMMA/EYEDEA/ZUMA; Frank Micellotta/Getty Images; Brad Barket/Getty Images; Jason Merritt/Getty Images

So it's the weekend already! Although, really, it couldn't have come fast enough for us. Robert Pattinson can only have so many brushes with death, David Letterman can apologize only so many times and Brangelina can donate only so much money before we declare it a day and retire to our caves with the first season of True Blood and a case of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Here's what else haunted our dreams last week...

1. We might stop talking about Heidi and Spencer. Seinfeld pulled off being about nothing, but the hourglass has about run out on the Pratts' vacuous run. Al Roker votes yay, but sometimes Speidi are fun for all the wrong reasons, so you still have plenty of time to state your case before a final ruling is announced Monday during E! News.
2. This is getting serious. Ladies, you know Robert Pattinson isn't really immortal, right? At this rate, he may not make it to the Twilight-mad Teen Choice Awards in one piece! And then who would Kristen Stewart spend all her time yearning for?!
3. David Letterman threw himself under the bus and offered up a more sober apology to Sarah Palin, who accepted the Late Show host's kinder mea culpa. And yet people still protested the poor schlub!
4. The next episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 will feature a "special announcement." We're thinking divorce, but isn't that what TLC wants us to think? Won't we feel silly when it turns out they're just planning a trip to Mall of America or something. Mom and dad did spend a few minutes together, after all...
5. A couple of cops in Ohio are being investigated for allegedly breaking into the home of the woman who's carrying Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's baby in order to dig up tabloid dirt. Have you no shame, sirs?

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This week, Sean Penn announced that he “needs personal time” to “regroup” and focus on his family life, and has subsequently dropped out of two films that he had signed on to do: The Three Stooges and Cartel.

The rumour mill suggests that Cartel may move ahead with a different lead, but the fate of the bizarre Stooges project is far more interesting. Helmed by The Farrelly Brothers (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber), the comedy had Penn starring as Larry alongside Benicio Del Toro (Moe) and Jim Carrey (Curly), in what was easily the most audacious casting move in recent memory.

So, who do you think should take the Best Actor Oscar-winner’s place in The Three Stooges? Answer our poll, and post your own suggestions below!

Once you’re done here, head over to slice.ca to talk about how you deal with stressful situations when they crop up in your life.

FAME PICTURES

If there's anyone who might just want to focus on his family for awhile, it's Sean Penn.

The Oscar-winning star has pulled out of his next two scheduled film projects, including the Farrelly brothers' Three Stooges update, E! News confirmed Tuesday.

Penn, who has broken up and made up with wife Robin Wright Penn twice over the past 18 months, recently wrapped the true-story CIA drama Fair Game, in which he played the husband of outed agent Valerie Plame.

But instead of starring next in the drama Cartel and then taking on the role of Larry Fine in the Stooges comedy this fall, alongside the dream team of Benicio Del Toro and Jim Carrey as Moe and Curly Howard... Penn is taking a break.

Not that he wouldn't have taken a bottle to the head later. 

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