People: May 26, 1986

He never pulls a punch during an argument on his talk show, but last week Phil Donahue found himself fighting more than a war of words at New York City's La Guardia Airport. The encounter occurred as Donahue and his actress wife Marlo Thomas were on their way to Boston, where Thomas was being honored for her anti-nuclear-arms activities. William Ferguson, a 6-ft., 260-lb. follower of right-wing Activist Lyndon LaRouche, was passing out pro-nuclear literature when he spotted the couple--at which point a down-with-your-nukes, put-up- your-dukes fracas broke out. Donahue says that Ferguson yelled, "You oughta | be in jail!" and kicked him in the groin. Ferguson says that Donahue was a "beast" who went "totally berserk" and bashed him on the head after calling him a "Nazi." A nonviolent mediation hearing has been set for this week to sort it out.