Phil Bronstein, the husband of silver screen femme fatale Sharon Stone, is hoping to be back at work by the end of the week, following the attack on him by a Komodo dragon. “It’s L.A. I was just taking a meeting,” Bronstein joked while recovering from emergency surgery.
The giant lizard made a move for Bronstein, executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, after his wife had arranged a private visit at the Los Angeles Zoo as a surprise for Father’s Day. On the urging of the animal’s carers, the journalist removed his white sneakers, in case the dragon mistook them for the live white rats that it normally eats. No such luck.
"Sharon was taking a picture, and the keeper said, ‘Why don’t you move around so she can get a better picture?’” recalls Phil from his hospital bed. The dragon struck Bronstein’s left foot and had, “within seconds,” crushed the big toe and torn two tendons.
The couple waited for the paramedics to arrive after Sharon had put a tourniquet on her husband’s toe. “It’s always an interesting experience looking into your own body. It was clear he’d done some serious damage to my foot.”
The US media has had a field day with Bronstein’s injury, but the newsman is taking it all in his stride. “I laughed out loud at several points,” says Bronstein of Jay Leno’s show earlier in the week, in which he joked about the attack. “He was pretty funny.” And Roan, the couple’s year-old son, gave his dad a stuffed Komodo dragon as a welcome home present.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
