There was a painful GQ (i think) article when someone there thought it would be a good idea to have Brett Easton Ellis and Irvine Welsh hang out together (in Dublin, IIRC). Welsh turns up hours late, totally pished with some random bam in tow, and proceeds to shout over everyone and then puts BEE in a 'playful' headlock (something he definitely deserved later on in life, but perhaps not at this precise moment).
There's an amazing picture of Ellis slumped on the pavement (presumably outside the pub where this encounter took place), looking utterly bereft and haunted. It stuck with me, because I've seen that expression a few times, usually when I've taken non-Scottish friends out on the town in Glasgow, and they end up in playful headlocks performed by aggressively friendly, shouty nutters.
It made Mailer vs Vidal seem very civilised by comparison, which is pretty amusing considering that the article starts off with the pair talking about how much they respect each other's work.