Stripper with a heart of brass gets club in trouble

A stripper who reported two days early to her new job at the Glass Slipper on Lagrange Street never got a chance to strut her stuff. Instead, she wound up under arrest after a bruising battle with a waitress that left both with cuts and the club having to answer to the Boston Licensing Board.

At a hearing this morning, a club manager and a Boston police officer said the fight, on Oct. 27, stemmed from a dispute over locker space in the dancers' locker room.

The woman, hired on Thursday and told to report on Monday, showed up on Saturday - but had no place to stow her stuff since she wasn't expected for another two days, they said. A waitress offered to share her locker, the stripper refused, words were exchanged, the stripper picked up a glass cup and swung it at head of the waitress, who put up her arm, which deflected it to the floor, where it shattered, after which the two women grappled and tumbled to the floor, now covered in broken glass.

Officer Mark Bulger told the board that the stripper called police, complaining she'd just been beaten up by six other women at the club. The club manager denied that, saying maybe other dancers - there were 20 in the locker room at the time - separated the two.

Once police and an ambulance arrived, however, she proved reluctant to cooperate - possibly because, as police discovered during booking on the A&B charges, she was wanted on a warrant out of Chelsea District Court for possession of a Class C drug.

The club manager said she was told not to return and that the waitress was also fired for her part in the fight. He added that by the time the male security staff got upstairs, the fight appeared to be over.

The licensing board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take over the fight, the fact that nobody at the club called police and the disappearance of the stripper's bag of stuff.