Paz de la Huerta charged after assault on Swetra

Boardwalk Empire star Paz de la Huerta has been hit with a misdemeanour assault charge after a set-to with US model and reality TV star Samantha Swetra. The pair squared up in the early hours of Sunday morning at New York's Top of the Standard nightclub. Lindsay Lohan was also on the scene, though according to the New York Post the notorious Hollywood actress wasn't involved in the 3am fracas.

It's alleged that the 26-year-old de la Huerta (above left) appeared a little tired and emotional as she approached a table where Swetra (above right), Lohan and a group of friends were sitting.

Reports say de la Huerta then began flirting with Swetra's male companion before losing her footing and tumbling to the floor in a most unladylike manner. Nightclub goers were then given an eyeful of one of de la Huerta's breasts "hanging out of her dress", a treat that appeared to amuse more than outrage.

Swetra apparently quipped "Triple Axel!" as de la Huerta struggled to recover her modesty, a joke that didn't sit well with the fiery actress who plays the villainous Lucy Danziger in Boardwalk Empire.

De la Huerta - whose name Paz means 'peace' in Spanish - is alleged to have thrown a glass at Swetra's leg and then followed that up with a haymaker of a punch that found its target.

The Post quotes a witness as saying: "Blood was dripping down [Swetra's] leg. Lindsay was pulling shards of glass off of it." The next day Swetra appeared with bruising to her face and lips, and asked to comment on the incident said tersely: "I am pressing charges."

Huerta has since been arrested and charged with a misdemeanour assault charge, and will appear before a Manhattan judge on April 19, though it's unlikely the talented actress will be unduly embarrassed by her behaviour.

Ever since she appeared on the cover of the New York Times magazine in 2003, de la Huerta has conveyed an image of a ballsy New Yorker with a bad attitude. In an interview with New York magazine last year she apologised to the reporter for her appearance, saying: "This construction worker I've been fucking has really been keeping me up late."

And she was in the news in January this year when she was refused entry to the Golden Globes after-party for being too drunk. As this video shows, she walked away she fell, ripped her dress and exposed a breast. But being the trouper she is, de la Huerta got to her feet and merrily signed an autograph for a fan who couldn't believe his luck. ·