Kim Kardashian was "flour bombed" Thursday night -- that is, someone hurled a baggie of flour at her -- as she arrived on the red carpet to market the launch of her new fragrance.

The flour bomb assault on Kardashian could lead to new rules of engagement between the public and public figures. Hollywood and the tabloid machine relish images of celebs interacting with fans at red carpet events -- like Tom Cruise being close enough to grab a fan's camera and pose with it.

But such proximity can potentially be fraught with danger. It gives haters an opportunity to inject themselves into a celebrity's circle of gravity, and share the spotlight. It's a tactic that has been employed for years by animal rights activists who douse fur-wearing celebrities with red paint to signify the blood shed by the animal being worn as fashion.

It's not just Hollywood celebrities such as Kardashian who are under attack from a testy public.

"Glitter bombers" have been out in force during the Republican presidential campaign, believed to be the work of gay rights and Occupy activists.

 Mitt Romney was the target of "glitter bombs" twice last month while on the campaign trail. One glitter bomb fell short. Another hit the candidate, but Romney brushed it off and later referred to it with a far more celebratory sounding label, "confetti."

The assault on Kardashian on Thursday night at the London Hotel in West Hollywood caused a momentary panic as those in attendance tried to figure out what the white substance was. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene, as did firefighters. They quickly determined that Kardashian was struck with common flour, nothing more serious.

The attacker's motive remains unclear. TMZ reports that she screamed "fur hag" at one point. She was taken into custody briefly, but Kardashian declined to press charges and she was released, TMZ also reported.

After she was powdered, Kardashian--the celebrity people love to hate and hate to love--was wisked to an anteroom where she removed her flour-doused coat. She brushed the flour out of her locks and then returned to the red carpet to promote the launch of her new fragrance, "True Reflection."

After all, this was Hollywood. The show must go on.

In later interviews, Kardashian laughed it all off. "That probably is the craziest, unexpected, weird thing that ever happened to me," Kardashian told E! online. "Like I said to my makeup artist, I wanted more powder and that's a whole lot of translucent powder right there."

Karen Gillan - Doctor Who actress is to make her professional theatre presentation in a West End stimulation of John Osborne's 1964 

play Inadmissible Evidence.

Gillan, who acts the Doctor's energetic assistant Amy Pond, will emerge with Douglas Hodge in the show, which launches at the Donmar Warehouse in October.

Hodge plays a self-vicious lawyer, while Gillan will play his secretary.

The 23-year-old Scot will be distinguished in a while this year playing model Jean Shrimpton in BBC Four film We'll Take Manhattan.

Dame Eileen Atkins played Gillan's role in the genuine production of Osborne's play at the Royal Court in London.

Jamie Lloyd will direct the Donmar's revival, which - according to the Daily Mail - will make "delicate cuts" to Osborne's text.

British actress Thandie Newton will also be striding the boards this autumn, this time in a revitalization of the Ariel Dorfman play Death and the Maiden.

The play - launching at the Comedy Theatre in October - will see the 38-year-old play an past political hostage who abducts a man she considers raped and tormented her.

Newton showed with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible II and won a Bafta in 2006 for her work in Crash.

Juliet Stevenson showed in the creative 1991 production of the play, while Sigourney Weaver starred in Roman Polanski's 1994 film.