Celebrity News

VELVET ROPE ‘ATTACK’ AT CLUB

A HUNKY actor who played Nicolas Cage‘s brother in “World Trade Center” and who’s one of city’s best-known club doormen was busted yesterday for allegedly attacking a man with the metal end of a velvet rope outside Avenue in Chelsea.

Wass Stevens, 45, was charged with assault and possession of a weapon after cops say he whacked Peter Pak, 24, a student at the University of California at San Diego, sending him to St. Vincent’s Hospital. Pak said the trouble started around 2:30 a.m., when Stevens refused to let him and a friend who’s about to get married in and became belligerent.

“He said, ‘Shut the [bleep] up’ to my friend. ‘Get the [bleep] out of here,’ ” Pak told The Post’s Jamie Schram. “He was very condescending. We started cursing at each other and arguing. He lifted the rope and tossed the end metal part at my face . . . My head cracked and I fell to the ground. I had to go to the hospital for a CAT scan. There was no internal damage but I had huge blaring headaches.”

But Stevens’ lawyer, Sal Strazzullo, told Page Six: “Wass is 100 percent innocent. He was released on his own recognizance, without bail, which I think shows you the weakness of the case. There wasn’t even a corroborating statement from the victim at the court hearing.”

Stevens, whose real name is Mark Wasserman, is an ex-boxer and former Bronx assistant district attorney. He was in “The Wrestler” with Mickey Rourke, appears in Richard Gere‘s upcoming flick “Brooklyn’s Finest” and has had recurring roles on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Ugly Betty.”

Prior to Avenue, Wass worked the door at Marquee. In a 2002 interview, he told The Post: “Doormen have to turn away some people. Sometimes we’re hated because people don’t like to be told, ‘No.’ “