ERIC IN TOILET TUSSLE – CONFIDENTIAL:
ERIC ROBERTS can’t get no relief.
After shooting a scene for his new film “Clinton Road” last week, the 61-year-old Oscar-nominated actor asked his driver to pull into a Chelsea 7-Eleven so he could use that bathroom. But according to witnesses on the scene, an employee at the convenience store told Roberts that the facilities were for employee use only, which didn’t go over well.
“He got into a big argument with the 7-Eleven clerk and some people inside recognized him,” according to one source. Roberts (photo inset), apparently hoping the clerk would be impressed, then asked again, “There, can I use the bathroom now?” But the shopkeep wasn’t starstruck and again refused Roberts’ request to use the facilities.
“Eric walked out all p---ed — no pun intended,” laughed a source on the scene. When Roberts exited, the store employee, wanting to make sure Roberts left, followed him out.
“The guy came out and confronted Eric,” according to that source. That’s where a livery driver who’d been waiting outside for Roberts intervened wielding “some kind of stick,” we’re told.
“The driver had to get between them,” said one source.
Roberts and the driver went back to the car across the street and pulled away with the shopkeeper still fuming outside the store. Former NYPD Officer Steve
Stanulis, who worked as a bodyguard for stars, including Kanye West and Leonardo
DiCaprio, before going into showbiz, is directing the film. He confirmed that Roberts was on set Oct. 14, the night the 7-Eleven incident occurred.
“Eric came by and did a little cameo,” Stanulis said. He confirmed that the producers had a driver scheduled to get Roberts back to his hotel around 10:30 p.m. that night, which was when the 7-Eleven dustup happened.
In Roberts’ cameo, he shows up at a nightclub where Noel
Ashman, the film’s executive l producer and a former nightclub owner in real life, plays a doorman who Billy won’t let Roberts in without seeing an ID.
Reps for Roberts did not get back to us.