Fawcett’s Ex-Boyfriend Gets Probation in Beating

Producer-director James Orr was sentenced Thursday to three years’ probation for slamming ex-girlfriend Farrah Fawcett’s head to the ground and choking her during a brawl.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman also ordered Orr to perform 100 hours of community service, attend a counseling program and pay $500 to a domestic violence fund. Orr also was ordered to avoid any contact with Fawcett.

He had faced a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $6,000 fine.

A jury in August convicted Orr of one count of misdemeanor battery for the Jan. 28 fight. He was acquitted on a second battery charge involving an earlier altercation.

Orr was accused of pushing the 51-year-old actress down, slamming her head to the driveway and trying to choke her during a fight that followed an argument at a restaurant. Fawcett admitted smashing some of the windows at his Bel-Air mansion with a baseball bat and acknowledged that the two squared off with bar stools during the fight.

Orr, 44, is a writer, director and producer whose credits include “Three Men and a Baby.”