Avril Lavigne defends spitting on photographers outside a Hollywood nightclub because they are “scum”.

The former SK8ter Girl was leaving Hollywood hotspot Hyde when she was bombarded by a pack of paparazzi and she lashed out.

“I was at Hyde and there were a million paparazzi guys. They’re all these gross older men, like disgusting, scum of the earth,” Av tells Seventeen Magazine.

The singer is Seventeen’s covergirl for publication’s April 2007 issue.

“They follow you around with clipboards and these glossy pictures of you. They shove it in your face when you walk out of the club (for an autograph), then sell it on (online auction site) eBay.

“So I wrote ‘f–k you, f–k you, f–k you,’ all over mine. Then I spit on them. And they love it! They’re all laughing saying, ‘Avril spit on me!’

“But I’d been spitting on them for two years and that one time it became a story!”