The couple married in March 2002

Gest, who separated from Minnelli three months ago, said she threw a lamp at him and beat his face with her fists.

In an 11-page civil suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, he said an attack by Minnelli left him with an "unrelenting pain in his head".

The lawyer representing singer Minnelli did not comment on the case.

According to the suit, the most recent incident took place at the Connaught Hotel in London in June.

Music producer Gest alleged that another drunken brawl took place at the Hotel Plaza Athenee in New York after the couple returned from their European honeymoon last year.

She started beating me with her hands about the head until I ran into the other room David Gest's lawsuit

Gest, 50, said he caught his wife, aged 57, drinking a bottle of vodka and that caused her to "fly into a rage".

"She started beating me with her hands about the head until I ran into the other room," Gest says.

He said he was so concerned he called an organisation providing treatment for people affected by alcoholism and drug addiction.

On learning she was about to be admitted for treatment, Gest said Minnelli again flew into a "violent rage, beating the plaintiff with her hands while shouting insults at him".

Gest said that following one attack he sustained severe injuries about the head and "virtually constant unrelenting pain in his head".

Minnelli is the daughter of Hollywood legend Judy Garland

He added he suffers from "throbbing pain, severe headaches, vertigo, nausea, hypertension, scalp tenderness and insomnia".

The suit states that Gest takes 11 medications a day to treat his pain and injury.

At the time of their marriage Minnelli's career had "eclipsed, she was an alcoholic, overweight, (and) unable to be effectively merchandised", according to the suit.

Gest alleged that heavy drinking by Minnelli gave her "remarkable force and strength".

The lawsuit said the repeated "physical attacks" had made Gest "a victim of domestic violence - one of an estimated 835,000 men per year in America who are similarly abused".

The couple were married in March 2002 and split 16 months later in July this year. Minnelli's spokesman said they had no plans to divorce.

They cancelled plans for a wedding anniversary party this year for 1,200 guests in Times Square, New York, citing the war with Iraq and Minnelli entering rehab.

Plans for a reality show following the couple as they hosted weekly dinner parties with celebrity friends in their Manhattan penthouse were cancelled after producers said they had not had the access promised.