Joe Francis: Jayde Nicole Tried to Kill Me!

Joe Francis, who never met a lawsuit he didn't like (well, aside from the dozens he's named as the defendant in), is going after Brody Jenner's Playmate girlfriend.

The reasoning? He says Jayde Nicole threatened to kill him during a bar fight back in August, and now the Girls Gone Wild slime bag founder "feared for his life."

According to the lawsuit, Francis claims he was innocently walking through a crowd of people at "Guys and Dolls" nightclub in Hollywood on the night in question.

Innocently, that is, until a lurking Jayde Nicole emerged from the shadows, violently struck him in the head, threw a drink on him and said, "I'm going to kill you!"

Somehow we're guessing there was more to it than that.

Francis claims he was "startled and shocked" at the nightclub melee that broke out (and left Jenner tasered) but then he saw Jayde reaching for a bottle.

Joe Francis is suing Jayde Nicole and claiming no wrongdoing on his part.

While their accounts greatly differ, one thing that seems fairly certain here is that Jayde was pissed at Joe hitting on her BFF (and his ex-GF) Abbey Wilson.

In the documents filed in court this week, Francis claims "in fear and apprehension of being struck a third time and that Nicole was going to carry out her threat to kill him," Joe grabbed Nicole's hair (which she alleges) in "self-defense."

Joe claims Nicole fell to the ground, but only because she "lost her balance on her high heels." Not because he pummeled her senseless, as she claims.

Later, Francis claims Jenner attacked him "in a jealous rage."

Francis is now suing both Brody and Jayde for battery, assault, negligence, slander, libel and false light, because after the bar incident, Francis claims the two lied when they recounted the incident to a camera guy from a celebrity gossip site.

Whose side are you on?