-== ARTICLES ==-

 Pulp Fiction pugilist Quentin Tarantino was booked Thursday in New York on charges stemming from a racially tinged scuffle last month.  The wannabe actor--currently playing a psycho in the Broadway play Wait Until Dark--turned himself in to police about 1 p.m., said NYPD Officer Valerie St. Rose. (It wasn't clear why Tarantino picked Thursday to surrender.)  He was booked on misdemeanor assault charges then released. Arraignment is set for July 13.  Tarantino later took the stage, as scheduled, at the theater where his Wait Until Dark run continues. Afterward, he declined to talk to reporters about the charges.  "You guys know I can't talk about that," Tarantino said.  The mess that landed the filmmaker in hot water took place in the wee, small hours of May 1.

Tarantino and cronies retired to Manhattan's Three of Cups restaurant. The conversation turned to race, with Tarantino admittedly blurting out that some black people have "broad" noses.  That ticked off a black man in QT's party, name of Barron Claiborne. Words flew between the men and eventually Tarantino tried to go medieval on Claiborne, reports said.  Trouble was, Tarantino missed, allegedly clocking Claiborne's girlfriend, Leila Mwangi, 24, with a fist instead.  "Leila has a huge gash over her eye," Claiborne told the New York Daily News.  She's the one who filed the police complaint. (She followed that up by filing a lawsuit against the director.)

On Thursday, Tarantino's lawyer belittled the complaint.  "These charges are utterly false and groundless," attorney Paul Callan said. "This is celebrity-stalking of the worst possible kind."

Still, Tarantino's fists have landed him in trouble before. He's currently being sued for $5 million by a movie producer he slapped in a Hollywood bistro brawl.