Police looking into Nigella Lawson throat-grab pics, husband says incident was ‘playful tiff’

LONDON – British police say they are investigating after a newspaper published photos of Nigella Lawson’s husband Charles Saatchi with his hands around the celebrity chef’s throat.

The Sunday People newspaper ran pictures of what it said was the couple’s violent argument at a London restaurant on June 9.

Saatchi, Britain’s best-known art collector, told London Evening Standard newspaper on Monday that the pictures misrepresented a “playful tiff.”

Saatchi, a columnist for the London Evening Standard, said “the pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place.”

Lawson’s spokesman, Mark Hutchinson, declined to comment.

London police say it has received no criminal complaint, and “inquiries are in hand to establish the facts” in order to assess whether a formal investigation is necessary.