Family Ties actor arrested over assault

A former cast member of the 1980s television show Family Ties has been arrested for investigation of assault in Colorado, police say.

Brian Bonsall, 28, got into a fight at an apartment on Saturday and hit a friend with part of a broken wooden stool, police said on Monday.

Bonsall - who played Michael J. Fox's little brother Andy Keaton on the sitcom - allegedly told officers he had been drinking and didn't remember what happened.

He is being held in the Boulder County Jail and is due in court on Wednesday.

Authorities say Bonsall was sentenced to probation in 2007 for assaulting his girlfriend. He was later accused of probation violations.

The former child actor lives in Westminster, Colorado, near Boulder.

News of his arrest comes a week after Meredith Baxter, who played Bonsall's mother Elyse Keaton on the series, revealed  that she is a lesbian.

"I am a lesbian, and it was a later-in-life recognition of that fact," the 62-year-old actress said in an interview on NBC television's Today show.

Baxter said she has been in a relationship with her girlfriend, a general contractor, for four years.

"Some people are saying, were you living a lie? And, you know, the truth is, not at all. This has only been in the past seven years," she said.

"I got involved with someone I never expected to get involved with, and it was that kind of awakening," she said.

"I never fought it because it was like, oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in life. I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships."

Baxter was open about her new-found identity almost immediately with her five kids.

Her son Peter's reaction, like that of his siblings, was both reassuring and supportive.

"I just couldn't stop smiling because she finally figured it out."

Baxter has been married three times, including to David Birney, her co-star on the '70s TV series Bridget Loves Bernie.

- AP