That's choked, not choked on, which is what many a sports and pop culture fan are doing sometime during or after reading about this one. Tabloid Media, we present your new Domestic Abuse News Cycle: Tila Tequila and Shawne Merriman.

Tila Tequila (née Tila Nguyen)—the MySpace sensation turned metasexual MTV reality star—has been dating Merriman for a while, now. She signed a citizens arrest warrant sometime around 3AM last night after calling cops, accusing Merriman of battery and false imprisonment at Merriman's house. San Diego Charger Merriman's been taken into police custody; Tequila went to the hospital and was recently released. NBC Sports estimates that

...because he's a first offender, there's a chance that neither the league nor the team will act until the legal process plays itself out.

Interestingly enough, ESPN rushed to the story on this one. They certainly didn't have a problem holding out on Ben Roethlisberger's rape allegations. They cited the reason for that one as lacking an official criminal complaint, but given Deadspin's breakdown of the accusations against him, ESPN's Innocent-Until-Proven-Black policy remains in full effect.

Tequila's been out of the spotlight for a while, and this is definitely going to put her back in it. Public opinion of her's going to be interesting, given that (A) this is the male-dominated sports community looking at (B) someone who's lived their life as a sex symbol and (C) has lied time and time again about her sexual orientation for profit. Also of interest: the photos TMZ has before the spat of Tequila giving Merriman a lap dance earlier in the night.

Finally, domestic abuse scandals: two's a trend? This one's gonna get ugly. Don't bother reading the comments on TMZ or on Twitter about this. You won't like what you'll see. These things bring out the worst in people: primal reactions elicit primal opinions. Or as one TMZ commenter put it:

23. While I don't know exactly how it went down, I do know that Tila Tequila is a grade A narcissistic beeyotch. I'm 90% sure she deserved what happened. Kudos to Merriman for having the balls to set her straight. Maybe she will act a little less annoying going forward.

Posted at 1:40PM on Sep 6th 2009 by Charles

Ugh.