Ananova:

Actor Charlie Sheen has been charged following an alleged assault on his wife Brooke Mueller during a Christmas Day argument.

Sheen, 44, star of the comedy series Two and a Half Men, was charged with felony menacing, third-degree assault and criminal mischief.

But the couple left the court in the Colorado ski resort of Aspen hugging each other, hoping the charges will be dropped, and apparently planning to reconcile.

"Brooke would like the case dismissed and the charges against Charlie to go away," lawyer Yale Galanter told the court, adding that Mueller and Sheen were "mortified" by the public attention surrounding the incident.

Sheen was arrested in Aspen on Christmas Day after Mueller called police and told them he pulled a knife on her during an argument, and threatened to have her killed. Sheen spent the day in jail before being released.

Sheen and Mueller, the actor's third wife, married in 2008 and have twin sons.

Details of the case against the actor were not read in Aspen's Pitkin County District Court, but the judge did lift a "no contact" ruling.

The restraining order imposed in December had barred Sheen from talking to or having contact with his wife. Lawyers for Sheen and Mueller asked to have the order lifted, and prosecutors did not object.

Mueller told police the couple had argued furiously and that Sheen pulled out a knife and held it to her throat when she threatened to divorce him and take their children.

At the time, Sheen denied brandishing the knife, but admitted crumpling his wife's eyeglasses and said both of them had slapped each other's arms.

Sheen's film credits include Platoon and Wall Street, but he is currently starring as a womanising bachelor in the successful US TV show Two and a Half Men.

He did not enter a response to the charges against him.