NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The firestorm around Charlie Sheen escalated on Wednesday when a judge ordered his two sons removed from the actor's home after his ex-wife obtained a stay-away order against Sheen, claiming he had threatened her.
The "Two and a Half Men" star told reporters that he did not know where his nearly 2 year-old twin boys, Bob and Max, were taken late Tuesday night after ex-wife Brooke Mueller won a temporary restraining order against him.
The embattled "Two and a Half Men" star appeared in control on morning chat show "Today" on Wednesday, a contrast to angry, public rants in recent days in which he accused the makers of his hit TV sitcom of wrongly suspending the show's production for the remainder of the current season.
"I do not know where my children are, but I am not panicking. This is not about emotions, it is not about ego, it is just about getting very focused," Sheen said on "Today."
The CBS television network and the show's producer Warner Bros Television stopped making "Two and a Half Men" last week when Sheen launched several public, expletive-filled rants against the show's creator, Chuck Lorre.
His tirades followed more than a year of reports about his wild, party-filled lifestyle, stints in rehab, hospitalizations and legal troubles.
Late Tuesday, a California judge issued a stay-away order barring Sheen from coming closer than 100 years to Mueller and their sons. In the order, a copy of which was posted on celebrity website TMZ.com, Mueller claims earlier this week Sheen told her "I will cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom."
Mueller also claims that last week Sheen threatened to stab her with a pen knife, spat on her feet and punched her arm, according to court documents.
Sheen told "Today" that when his children were removed from his home, "I stayed very calm and focused.
"I didn't push it because I am not into resisting the law and had to surrender to it," he said. "If anyone thought my focus was directed in a radical capacity, that's going to seem like child's play."
Mueller and Sheen have been separated since December 2009, when the actor was arrested in Aspen, Colorado, on charges of assaulting her during a Christmas Day argument.
He pleaded guilty in August 2010 to assault and was ordered to serve 30 days in drug and alcohol rehab in California.
Under terms of their divorce settlement, made public in February, Mueller will gain primary physical custody of the twins and Sheen will pay child support of $55,000 a month.
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
