Beth Ditto arrested after 'kicking barman in the balls'

BETH DITTO, an icon of US alternative rock, has been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

The 32-year-old singer with the dance-punk band Gossip – whose real name is Mary Beth Patterson – was refused service at a bar in Portland, Oregon in the early hours of Saturday morning because she appeared to be drunk.

Ditto then left the Bungaloo bar and "walked out in the middle of the street, threw off her shoes and purse and screamed Obama! Obama", a witness told the Willamette Week. "The cops came," the witness said. "Like 10 or 12 cars."

Another witness to the incident told the NME that by 1.30am Ditto was "completely blackout drunk and challenging people to fights". "The bartender called the police because she kicked him in balls," the witness said.

Ditto has been released from the Portland police station and will appear in court at a future date. If found guilty she faces up to six months in prison. Ditto's police mugshot (see above) has been widely circulated online.

Ditto is well known in the UK, partly due to her music and partly because of an irreverent column on body image she used to write for The Guardian. The singer also made a memorable appearance in the nude on the cover of the launch edition of London's Love Magazine in February 2009.

In an interview with Metro late last year, Ditto spoke of her plans to marry her girlfriend Kristen Ogata at a "super-traditional wedding" ceremony. She also said the couple wanted to have "babies". "When we tour, the babies will come with us'," she said. ·