By Jack Hawn
Submitted by taxifan

Former boxer Tony Danza - 7-2 as an amateur, 10-3 as a professional and 0-1 in a New York courtroom - looked as if he had been overmatched.

Right forearm heavily bandaged, palms rubbed raw and abrasions elsewhere on his anatomy, the co-star of the comedy series Who's the Boss? explained his latest bruises.

"It was just a scooter," he said, shrugging indifferently as he munched a burger the other day in his dressing room after rehearsing an episode for his series' second season. "The brakes locked and we fell."

The words sounded almost apologetic, as if he suddenly realized he had dumped a bucket of ice water on a potential headline.

Danza had taken a little spin with his 14 year-old son Marc Anthony, and even the boy suffered nothing worse than "a strawberry on his butt... like sliding home."

Hardly a banner story, to be sure.

Last year, though, Danza really made news - when he was convicted of assaulting a guard in a New York restaurant and was sentenced to 250 hours of community service and three years' probation.

"He's suing me for $15 million," Danza said, referring to the action taken by the 36 year-old security guard William Sawyer, of Manhattan. "It's still in litigation."

Admitting he was not completely sober at the time, Danza said the "fracas" - as he preferred to label the food-throwing incident - was "the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life....

"I spent a couple of days in the old klink. Jail is baaaad! A guy comes by with religious pamphlets, you read them!"

The actor feared the judge might throw away the key and was so relieved when he didn't, Danza couldn't wait to start paying his debt to society, if not the $16 million sought by Sawyer.

Danza rented a New York apartment for two months last summer and logged time as the Activities Director at a Jewish home and hospital for the aged in Harlem.

"I put in 212 1/2 hours," he said, "and when they start counting half-hours, you know they're counting."

Apparently, Danza has enjoyed performing what he likes to think is "volunteer" service.

"I got 'em bowling out of their wheelchairs.... I put on the Wizard of Oz, had a 92 year-old guy {Frank Zimmerman} playing the Wizard, and he could sing! I had David Letterman call him up one time."

Danza also has conducted exercise and music classes, organized field trips and arranged for other entertainers to "help out - read, talk to them.... Volunteer work turns out to be pretty cool."