Charlie Sheen denied sending a text message saying he would "execute" his "stoopid jew pig" manager, telling TMZ it was actually sent by his ex-wife.
Brooke Mueller submitted the message, obtained by The Smoking Gun, while seeking a temporary restraining order, which she received Tuesday along with custody of their children. She also told the court that Sheen threatened to decapitate her, a claim he denied on NBC's "Today."
"I must execute Mark B like the stoopid jew pig that he is and I must do it in the next 10 seconds," Sheen allegedly texted on Feb. 19, according to an image of Mueller's iPhone submitted to the court.
But Sheen denied sending the messages, and manager Mark Burg backed him up. "I busted Brooke a year ago sending text messages from my phone to family members to cause discord," he told TMZ, adding that his two girlfriends would testify that they "observed Brooke with my phone on that day."
Burg noted that many of Sheen's business associates are Jewish, telling TMZ, I've known him for 13 years. I don't believe that he actually sent that text." He added: "For the record, since Brooke Mueller is Jewish that would make Charlie Sheen's two sons also Jewish."
If real, the message adds fuel to allegations of anti-Semitism by Sheen, who last week called "Two and a Half Men" creator Chuck Lorre "Chaim Levine," in an angry tirade. The Anti-Defamation League said it suggested possible "borderline anti-Semitism." Charles Levine is Lorre's birth name; Chaim is a Hebrew equivalent of Charles.
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Sheen has repeatedly denied he is anti-Semitic.
The actor lost custody of his twin sons — at least for now — soon after Mueller won the restraining order. She said in her request for the order that Sheen had threatened to "cut your head off, put it in a box and send it to your mom."
She also said that on Feb. 23, four days after the text, he threw a phone inside his house and, while holding a penknife, threatened to stab her in the eye.
Sheen pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor third-degree assault on Mueller. He said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" that the "cut your head off" claim was "colorful" and denied he had said it.
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"No, I did not. That's a good one, I guess," he said. "If you spend enough time around me you can formulate things and make it sound like it could have come from my mouth. But you could do that watching reruns."
Sheen's assault plea stemmed from a Christmas 2009 incident in Aspen, Colo. Mueller said in a 911 call that Sheen "had me… with a knife and I'm scared for my life and he threatened me." She later declined to testify.
Asked Wednesday on "Today" if he wanted to say anything to Mueller, he worried that addressing her over the airwaves could violate the restraining order. Assured that it wouldn't, he said:
"Brooke, I'm sorry you felt this had to be done in this way, but this does not display any responsible parenting in anything that I'm familiar with and I think that cooler and smarter, leveler heads can prevail and I urge you to reach out to me immediately if not sooner and tell me where our sons are."
Sheen and Mueller's twins, Bob and Max, who turn 2 on March 14, were taken on the same night they appeared with him on a widely seen "20/20" interview. During the show they were seen posing for the cameras with him and his two girlfriends, a porn star and a former marijuana magazine model.
In a message to his sons on "Today," he said, "It's Dada. I will see you very soon. You're right here," and touched his heart.
TMZ, which first reported the twins were taken from Sheen's custody, said Mueller's lawyer told the judge that Mueller is in a "day treatment" facility for substance abuse and that she would see the children for four hours a day, with her mother caring for them at other times.
Sheen said on his new Twitter account early Wednesday, "My sons' [sic] are fine… My path is now clear… Defeat is not an option..!"
He also tweeted a picture of a cake with an Oscar statuette with his face, and a shot of "the only watch that keeps warlock time" and Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series ring.
The "Today" interview:
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