While cavorting on his yacht one day, Errol Flynn was dismayed to discover that his dog had disappeared. Flynn called the coast guard, which, to his horror, found the animal's waterlogged corpse. A reporter soon covered the story, accusing the actor of negligence.

Some time later, Flynn encountered his accuser in a nightclub and promptly beat him to a pulp -- whereupon the man's wife entered the fray and stabbed him in the ear with a fork.

Though the reporter sued, the men settled out of court and soon became friends. "Your wife has good table manners," Flynn later declared. "She used the right fork."

[Flynn's regard for animals was variable at best. He once reportedly glued a dog's eyes shut and clipped a parrot's wings before setting it on a hot tub to watch it dance. On the other hand, he was so sickened by the callous way that horses were maimed and killed by trip wires during the shooting of "The Charge Of The Light Brigade" that he later refused to work on any movie which did not use specially trained animals capable of performing stunts without injury.]