Michael Bay fires back at pistol-whipping lawsuit

By Matthew Belloni

EXCLUSIVE: Director Michael Bay is ready to deploy legal firepower against the two men who sued him Tuesday claiming they were pistol-whipped by his security guard outside a trendy nightclub.  

"It's 100% frivolous," Bay tells us from the set of "Transformers 3" in Chicago. "We're all pretty perplexed by it. But we're not going to be perplexed when I go after these moneyhounds for malicious prosecution."

Bay isn't blowing smoke. The firebrand director has hired Hollywood litigator Marty Singer and plans to fight the battery and negligence suit.

Joshua Stewart and Paul Klimczak claim that in 2008, an intoxicated security guard working for Bay smashed the men in the face with a gun outside the Hollywood hotspots Beso restaurant and Kiss nightclub. Bay says he was indeed at Beso that night having a friendly dinner with seven couples, but he says he left by 11:30 p.m. and doesn't employ a bodyguard, let alone one who might have been inebriated.

"Why would I have a drunk security guard when I know the best Navy Seals in the United States?" asks the director of "Pearl Harbor" and "The Rock." "A lot of people don’t want to be bothered and they’ll just pay people off (to settle cases), but I’m not that guy."

A call to the plaintiffs' lawyers Steven and Christine Renshaw was not immediately returned.