diff -r 0238cc842805 Lib/idlelib/CallTips.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/CallTips.py	Thu Dec 06 17:49:58 2012 -0500
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/CallTips.py	Thu Dec 06 19:36:57 2012 -0600
@@ -100,7 +100,11 @@
             return rpcclt.remotecall("exec", "get_the_calltip",
                                      (expression,), {})
         else:
-            return get_argspec(get_entity(expression))
+            try:
+                tip = get_argspec(get_entity(expression))
+            except Exception as err:
+                tip = 'Error while retrieving call tip: %r' % err
+            return tip
 
 def get_entity(expression):
     """Return the object corresponding to expression evaluated
@@ -185,6 +189,8 @@
         @staticmethod
         def sm(b): "(b)"
         def __call__(self, ci): "(self, ci)"
+        def __getattr__(self, name):
+            raise Exeception('')
 
     tc = TC()
 
@@ -244,6 +250,7 @@
                             (TC.cm, "(a)"),):
             test('tc.'+meth.__name__, mdoc + "\n" + meth.__doc__)
         test('tc', "(ci)" + "\n" + tc.__call__.__doc__)
+        test('tc.break', '')  # .break causes raised exception
         # directly test that re works to delete unicode parameter name
         uni = "(A\u0391\u0410\u05d0\u0627\u0905\u1e00\u3042, a)"  # various As
         assert _first_param.sub('', uni) == '(a)'