When a male stranger approached Gigi Hadid from behind, put his hands on her and lifted her into the air against her will, the model quickly and ably defended herself with an elbow jab. But the model said her assailant is "lucky" her boyfriend Zayn wasn't there.

The video footage of what the media's calling a "notorious red carpet prankster"(maybe Italy needs to rethink its definition of 'prank'?) wrapping his arms around Hadid prompted actor Ansel Elgort to publicly wonder, "Where was Zayn at??" A better question might be where Gigi's paid security detail was, as they barely intervened — but again, she fortunately had the situation well in hand. Uh, well in elbow.

Hadid diplomatically replied, "That guy should prob take some time away from icing his jaw tonight to count his lucky stars that Z wasn't there..." followed with skull and coffin emoji.

Elgort received flak from some Hadid supporters who took issue with the idea that Hadid needed her man to step in.

"Not saying she needed anybody but I woulda went buck if sombody grabbed Violetta so it woulda been interesting to see that go down," Elgort tweeted in response. 

"It's pop culture I'm just having fun, not tryna offend anybody," the Divergent actor continued. "The video is just worldstar and would have been fun to see his reaction." To which one Zayn fan responded, "So it would be entertaining to you seeing his reaction to some f---er sexually harassing his girlfriend? Wow."

Prior to her exchange with Elgort, Gigi pointed out that her fitness fighting skills aided her quick response in the flap, and encouraged other women to familiarize themselves with self defense.

"Thanked my boxing coach today," she tweeted on Thursday. "GIRLS, prepare yourselves so that, if you ever feel in danger, MUSCLE MEMORY can fight back for you. Thank you all so much for ur support."

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