Model Tyson Beckford has a tiff with gossipist Perez Hilton

Tyson Beckford nearly punched out a gossip columnist who interrupted his attempted seduction of Nick Lachey's new girlfriend, Vanessa Minnillo, at a Chelsea club the other night.

Beckford was grinding against the "Entertainment Tonight" eye candy on the dance floor at Stereo when Internet chatterbox Perez Hilton, sensing that Beckford's advances were unwanted, tried to cut in.

"When Perez started dancing with her, Tyson put his hand up and said, 'Yo, you're trying to put a cool on my steam. Back up,' " relates Stereo owner Mike Satsky, who witnessed the faceoff. "Tyson was about to throw a punch. I jumped down from the banquette and was like, 'Yo, Tyson, chill out.' We had to break it up. He was being unreasonable and extremely rash."

Hilton - who we assume would have been soundly thrashed by muscle-bound Beckford - fought back on his Web site, calling the male mannequin a "small-[bleeped] idiot."

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