Marcus Collins Brands Towie's Maria Fowler 'Racist'

Marcus Collins, the X Factor finalist and Gary Barlow protégé, became involved in a public bust-up with 'The Only Way is Essex' star Maria Fowler at an event in Liverpool on Thursday (May 3, 2012). Bizarrely, the pair went ballistic at each other on Twitter, despite being in the same room.

According to the UK's Daily Mirror, the spat began when Maria, 25, asked Marcus if she could have her picture taken with him. She then tweeted the image, with the caption, "Drink down my dress. Marcus Collins who said he felt like he was workin when I asked for a pic bigtime". The X Factor finalist is understood to have approached Maria at the party, with Fowler tweeting, "Ooh Marcus asked why I called him bigtime (because he is) I said coz u were rude so he called me fake n spat in my hair ouch bigtime". Marcus then asked his followers, "Does anyone know who this girl is? Whoever she is she is very Very rude and needs to calm down whythelongface", before things began to turn nasty. The singer tweeted, "called a f****** queer c*** by mariafowler, not standing for homophobic abuse by anyone it's unnecessary and I never spat in anyone's hair..." The Only Way is Essex star began to fight her corner, responding, "Throwing the gay line for record am with 4 gay guys here certainly not homophobic. No excuse everyonesaw rude n ur 'people' just apologised..." Collins left the bash, before adding, "mariafowler I left because your vileness nocked me sick attheopeningofanenvelope and your a homophobic liar", though Maria wasn't done there, adding, "call me racist I will sue you for defamation".

As of yet, neither individual has addressed last night's incident, though Fowler tweeted a picture of herself earlier this morning.