When Barry went toe-to-toe with Tyson (almost)

Having spent more than 25 years on the celebrity-gossip beat, Barry Levine arguably has better war stories than any reporter who hasn't been embedded with armed forces overseas.

Levine's (mis)adventures range from getting hit in the leg with buckshot while in a helicopter hovering above the Don Johnson-Melanie Griffith wedding, to spending a bizarre Halloween with singer Liza Minnelli and then-husband David Gest at their posh Manhattan home. But nothing comes close to topping the time he was physically threatened by none other than former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson.

It was in 1988 when, as part of the third season of the ABC high school sitcom "Head of the Class," the cast and crew headed to Moscow to tape a pair of episodes. Tyson was there with his then-wife Robin Givens, who played one of the students.

"At the time," recalled Levine, then a reporter for the supermarket tabloid the Star, "we were the only ones who showed interest in going. Because of some restrictions [he and his photographer] were able to stay in the same hotel as the cast and the crew. So I was able to get very close to Robin, who was very suspicious of me, coming from Star magazine, because of all the tabloid stories at the time about their marriage."

Despite Givens' misgivings, Levine not only had unfettered access to the show's cast, he actually struck up a relationship with Tyson, even tagging along as Tyson visited Moscow boxing gyms. But that collegiality vanished when Levine received a phone call from his boss, who informed him that a London newspaper had run a story in which a man claimed to be Tyson's lover.

"My editor said, 'You're the only journalist there. You have to ask him, does he know this guy? It's a huge story.' He basically said, 'If you don't ask him, don't think about [keeping your job].' "

Levine's photographer suggested he question Tyson beyond Givens' earshot "because she doesn't trust you," he recalled.

"So that day Robin was in makeup at the hotel. [Tyson] was standing there with her. I said, 'Mike can you come out in the hall? I need to ask you something.' He said, 'Sure,' but Robin said, 'Barry, you ask Mike whatever you need to ask him in front of me. Anything you need to ask him, I need to be around.'

"I said, 'Of course the story has to be false, but a man in England is making claims he is your gay lover. My editor wants me to ask you if you know this man at all.'

"Even before I could get the words out, Robin blew up, jumped out of the chair and said, 'Mike, you see? You thought Barry was your friend. He's just like all those other tabloid journalists that are out to write nasty things about you.'

"I said, 'No, not at all. I'm simply asking Mike to clarify the story. We're not reporting this. This is coming from another newspaper.' "

Tyson then asked Levine to leave the room with him.

"So we're up on the 20th, 21st floor of this hotel in Moscow and he was furious," continued Levine. "He literally dragged me into a stairwell and said, 'Barry, you don't know how bad things are with Robin. I'm trying to hold this marriage together. It's not good. And something like this just makes her angry, and I don't want her to get angry, so I'm angry at you.'

"He was shaking me and he said, 'I can throw you over the stairwell. We're in Russia. If they find you, you're an American. They're not gonna care.' "

True to his get-the-story-at-any-cost tabloid ethos, Levine said he wasn't thinking about meeting his maker. Instead, "I was thinking, if I can somehow survive this, this is going to be a great story - my bout with Mike Tyson."

Levine ultimately calmed down Tyson and walked away unhurt. The headline of the story he wrote about the Tysons' Moscow trip? "To Russia without love."

Within a couple of weeks of their return to the U.S., the couple started divorce proceedings.

The takeaway for Levine? "You could not have this adventure," he reasoned, "if you weren't a tabloid journalist."