Sean Penn Punches Paparazzi

Sean Penn is no stranger to the limelight. He holds best actor Oscars for Milk and Mystic River and enjoyed a marriage to pop icon Madonna back in the day. Unfortunately, his past media attention didn't keep a run-in with a photographer last October from turning sour.

Penn stands charged with battery and vandalism after attacking a photographer and breaking his camera on October 2. If convicted, he could face up to 18 months in jail. The incident, captured on video, was broadcast on the celebrity Web site, TMZ.

The incident wasn't the first time the actor got a little hot-headed in the presence of the paparazzi. In 1985, Penn pled no contest to charges of attacking two British journalists who had tried to photograph his then-wife Madonna outside a hotel in Nashville.

Two years later, he was sentenced to 60 days of jail time when he punched out a movie extra during filming of Colors. At the time, he was already on probation for assaulting a songwriter at a Silver Lake nightclub after thinking the man had kissed Madonna.

Penn will be arraigned in March in a Los Angeles County Court.