Sean Penn rescued a barman from a verbal attack on Wednesday (25.01.12).
The ‘Milk’ actor was drinking at the Zinc Lounge in the Shade Hotel on Manhattan Beach in California with a female friend when a fellow patron began yelling abuse at the server, causing Sean to diffuse the situation by leaping to his defence.
A source told E! News: "This guy was drunk and yelling at the bartender. He wasn’t making much sense, but he was loud and just kept screaming.
"Sean came over to the bar and said, ‘Is everything OK over here?’ The guy was a smart aleck and said to Sean, ‘Stay out of it, Sparky!’ "
However, the actor remained calm and continued to talk him down, and eventually the drunk man left the bar.
Earlier this month Sean was made an "ambassador at large" for the Caribbean island of Haiti following his charity work after it was hit by a devastating earthquake two years ago.
Picking up a humanitarian award for his work in the country, he said: "I do accept [the job]," before adding it would be nice to be called ‘Mr. Ambassador.’ "