Luke Perry brawled with Tori Spelling's 'toxic' boyfriend Nick Savalas - who 'called her ugly 10 times a day' - at her family's blow-out Christmas party, new book reveals

It was a scene that could have come straight from an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

The show's star Luke Perry got into a fight with the toxic boyfriend of his 90210 co-star Tori Spelling at her family's Christmas party in the mid 1990s, a new book reveals.

Perry stepped up to Nick Savalas at the $150million Spelling family mansion in Los Angeles and told him he was a 'problem'.

Referring to Spelling, Perry said: 'I love her, and you should not be in her life.'

As Spelling's parents looked on, the two men got into a brawl which nearly knocked over the 18-foot Christmas tree, writes Margaret Wappler in 'A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up', which is out on Tuesday.

Months later Perry staged an intervention to get Spelling to break up with Savalas, who she has admitted was so abusive he called her ugly 10 times a day. 

A new book about the late actor Luke Perry reveals how he stood up for co-star and friend Tori Spelling who was dating an 'abusive' man 

Perry reportedly got into a brawl with Tori Spelling's 'toxic' boyfriend Nick Savalas at the Spelling family's Christmas party in 1995

Perry (third from the left) was touted as the next James Dean when he was hired to star in 90210 as bad boy Dylan McKay 

Perry was touted as the next James Dean when he was hired to star in 90210, which was dreamed up by Spelling's father Aaron, the TV and film producer.

Perry played Dylan McKay, the bad boy who was the counterpoint to the squeaky-clean Midwestern twins, Brandon and Brenda Walsh, played by Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty.

Margaret Wappler has authored 'A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up', which is out on Tuesday

The gritty plots of 90210 captivated viewers and turned the show into a sensation, but according to Wappler the real drama was offscreen thanks to Spelling's tortured love life.

While playing Donna Martin on the show, Spelling was dating Savalas, the son of Kojak star Telly Savalas, writes Wappler, a journalist who has written for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone.

Spelling later called Savalas a 'nightmare' who was 'verbally abusive, telling me 10 times a day how ugly I was.'

She also suspected he cheated on her, leached money from her and persuaded her to buy a Porsche Carrera which she totaled a week later.

But in 1995, Spelling was still under Savalas's spell and brought him to her family's annual Christmas party where the 90210 cast joined them.

As waiters served shrimp cocktail, caviar and sandwiches, a pianist played 'O Come All Ye Faithful' and other festive songs.

Wappler writes that Spelling stuck with Savalas because 'wealth didn't inure Tori from an unhealthy family culture that left her feeling inadequate and lonely'.

She writes: 'Aaron and Candy loved their daughter, but they eschewed honest conversation, and often handled conflict with letters or the silent treatment. Their distaste for Nick was clear from their pained faces, but they never spoke of it to Tori.'

When Perry and Priestley entered the party, Spelling asked them to say hello to Savalas. Priestley, the more diplomatic of the two, did so but Perry refused.

Wappler writes: 'Stinging from the snub, Nick decided to bring their long-simmering tension to a head. He stepped up to Luke. ''What's your problem?''

'You're my problem,' Luke answered. 'I love her, and you should not be in her life.'

'Then Luke pushed him – and it zinged off from there.'

Spelling later called Savalas a 'nightmare' who was 'verbally abusive, telling me 10 times a day how ugly I was' 

The book claims that Spelling's parents, Aaron and Candy, were so troubled by the episode that they would 'secretly enter therapy in the hopes of learning how to pry their beloved Tori out of Nick's grip' 

Tori grew up privileged, living in a massive 56.5K-square-foot French chateau-style mansion her TV mogul father Aaron Spelling had constructed in 1988. The 1995 Christmas party was held at the family mansion 

Perry was haunted by his own abusive father and 'longed to avenge his mother' so he 'didn't hold back.'

According to Wappler: 'They punched and shoved each other, brawling dangerously close to the eighteen-foot Christmas tree, its weighted boughs threatening to drop pinecone-sized ornaments gleaming in gold'.

Spelling became enraged at Perry after the brawl and she screamed that she 'hated him,' but eventually broke free of Savalas and they made up

Priestley broke up the fight and Savalas stormed out.

Incredibly, Spelling became enraged at Perry and she screamed that she 'hated him'.

The book claims that Spelling's parents were so troubled by the episode that they would 'secretly enter therapy in the hopes of learning how to pry their beloved Tori out of Nick's grip.'

Yet there was a positive resolution and it was Perry again who stepped in.

A few months later he led the 90210 cast in an 'intervention' in a dressing room on set.

They took turns to tell Spelling how 'enough was enough' and Savalas couldn't come on set any more.

Soon enough Spelling snapped out of Savalas's 'toxic thrall' and she began to see him as an abuser, Wappler writes.

She asked her friends to dump all his clothes on the lawn of her sister's house and break off with him for good.

Perry died in 2019 at the age of 52 after suffering a stroke at his home in Sherman Oaks, California.

Spelling, now 50, has somewhat better luck in love than Savalas and has been married twice and has five children.

But she was recently forced to live in a $100 a night motel with her children after splitting with her second husband of 18 years, Dean McDermott.

She has now moved into a $15,000 a month, five bedroom home in the San Fernando Valley in California.

Perry died in 2019 at the age of 52 after suffering a stroke at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, and Spelling gave a heartfelt tribute to her long-time friend after his death 

Among the other revelations in 'A Good Bad Boy' is that even though they were on-screen lovers, Perry and Doherty did not initially have much of a chemistry in real life.

While Doherty had been a child star who appeared in films like Heathers, Perry was relatively unknown.

Charles Roisin, the showrunner for 90210, says in the book: 'Shannen would come to the set and not really know what we were working on and memorize (her lines) as they were blocking'.

Doherty would feed off the last minute pressure and 'saved it for last take' but Perry was a 'first take best take' kind of actor.

According to Wappler, as the takes went on Perry 'wavered in consistency.'

Roisin said: 'When he first started working with us, he was very difficult for the editors because he never did it the same way every time, so they were hard sometimes to edit together'.

Larry Mollin, a 90210 writer who joined for the college years and left by season seven, characterized Perry and Doherty's relationship offscreen as 'frosty'.

Even Perry himself wasn't afraid to confront Doherty when he felt it was necessary.

He once said: 'There was a time when I kicked her dressing-room door off and said: 'Shan, let's fix things.' And we did'.

'I can work with her fine now. I don't have to get Shannen out of my sight so I can work, no. If she bothers me the day she comes in and she's late, I let her have it. I think that's why Shannen and I have the relationship that we do'.

Even though they were on-screen lovers, Perry and Shannen Doherty did not initially have much of a chemistry in real life, the author writes 

After Doherty went public with her breast cancer battle in 2015, Perry became much warmer and said that 'none of us would be here without Shannen'

After Doherty went public with her breast cancer battle in 2015 - which is now Stage 4 and has spread to her bones – Perry became much warmer and said that 'none of us would be here without Shannen'

The book also reveals that Perry was the reason why the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film got made in 1992, paving the way for the hit TV series which came after. Perry played Pike opposite Kristy Swanson as Buffy

The book also reveals that Perry was the reason why the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film got made in 1992, paving the way for the hit TV series which came after.

Fran Rubel Kuzui, the director of the movie, said that no major studio apart from Twentieth Century Fox showed interest, and even they had doubts.

But when Perry read the script he loved it and had just signed a two-movie deal with FOX and the studio liked the idea of him appearing in Buffy.

Kuzui said that Perry was 'always 100 percent present for me' while playing Pike, Buffy's love interest.

Perry even stuck up for Kuzui when she walked off the set at the unprofessional behavior of the crew, who were being disrespectful.

Perry apologized and agreed that if she were a man, this would not be happening.

He then picked her up and carried her back on to the film set, a gesture which she viewed as 'supportive and campy, in the spirit of the film itself'.

Wappler writes: 'And the bottom line was, they trusted each other'.