Eric Dane claimed in his posthumous memoir that he nearly came to blows with Josh Duhamel while filming “Las Vegas” in 2004. The confrontation unfolded as Dane shot a guest appearance for the television series, as reported [1] by Page Six.
Dane recounted the incident in “My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments,” according to Entertainment Weekly. He said the trouble began before the cameras rolled on a fight scene involving the two actors.
At the time, Dane was dealing with a herniated cervical disc in his neck. Because of the injury, he specifically asked Duhamel not to grab him by the tie while they performed the scene.
Dane wrote that Duhamel, who was the show’s lead, promised that he would respect the request. However, when the director called for action, Duhamel pulled Dane’s tie.
“Fire rips through my neck,” Dane wrote. “I go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, we have to stop.’”
Duhamel apologized following the first painful mistake, according to Dane’s account. The actors then prepared to film a second take, only for the same thing to happen again.
“He pulls on my tie again,” Dane wrote. He recalled turning to the director and warning, “You better rein in your boy.”
Dane said Duhamel apologized once more and explained that he “got caught up in the moment.” Despite the repeated tie pulling, production moved ahead with a third attempt at the scene.
Dane recalled going into take three, “and son of a bitch, he grabs my f–king tie again,” he wrote. Dane then removed his suit coat and said, “Let’s go, you p—y-ass actor.”
“I ball my hands into fists, and I come at him,” Dane continued. “Nobody calls ‘Cut,’ the camera keeps rolling, and to the world who sees the whole nasty scene, I’m the aggressor, the hothead, I start the fight.”
Dane included his explosive reaction among the regrets addressed in his memoir. He said he and Duhamel had encountered each other since the incident and were on good terms.
“Josh and I have seen each other since, and we’re cool,” Dane wrote, according to the outlet. He apologized to Duhamel, acknowledged that he had been wrong and said he should have walked away.
Dane appeared as Leo Broder during the second season of “Las Vegas.” Duhamel played Danny McCoy, a former U.S. Marine who served as head of security for the fictional resort featured in the series.
In a September interview on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Duhamel discussed his character’s state during that season. He said McCoy, who had just returned from Iraq, was “in a real dark place.”
Duhamel also said his method acting “scared people a little bit, including me.” A representative for the actor did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on Tuesday.
Eric Dane’s posthumous memoir revisits a confrontation with Josh Duhamel while filming Las Vegas in 2004. Dane said a fight scene aggravated his neck injury. He also apologized for his reaction and said the two were on good terms afterward. https://t.co/fRBy1Eud3F
— MEAWW Entertainment (@meawwofficial) November 4, 2026 [2]
Dane’s memoir, which hit shelves on Tuesday, also detailed the medical ordeal preceding his ALS diagnosis. He wrote that he began “gradually losing any use of [his] right hand” before seeing multiple specialists and undergoing numerous tests.
According to Dane, doctors initially reached “a diagnostic consensus” of multifocal motor neuropathy. He described it as “a rare autoimmune disorder causing extreme muscle weakness” with a “90% effective” treatment, but that treatment did not help him.
Dane wrote that the failed treatment left his doctors “scared.” He ultimately received an ALS diagnosis in 2024, calling it a “death sentence” and comparing the experience to “a horror movie.”
The actor publicly revealed his diagnosis in April 2025. He died in February at age 53, leaving behind his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, and their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
Dane and Gayheart had previously been headed for divorce, but he called off the divorce in 2025. His memoir preserves both his account of the tense encounter with Duhamel and his later apology for losing control.