December 25, 2007

August 02, 2006

MAD MEL'S DRINKING BUDDIES SPEAK OUT...ADL ACCEPTS APOLOGY...PARTY PICS

By Tom Tapp

***For UPDATES, look for RED LINKS***

ADL SAYS 'OK:' After Gibson issued a more specific statement this afternoon that included direct reference to his anti-Semitic remarks as well as a plea for help, the Anti-Defamation League has released a response accepting Gibson's contrition.

From Anne Thompson's Risky Biz blog:

This is the apology we had sought and requested. We are glad that Mel Gibson has finally owned up to the fact that he made anti-Semitic remarks, and his apology sounds sincere. We welcome his efforts to repair the damage he has caused, to reach out to the Jewish community, and to seek help. Once he completes his rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, we will be ready and willing to help him with his second rehabilitation to combat this disease of prejudice.

MEL'S DRINKING BUDDIES: In Touch magazine yesterday posted an interview with two tourists who say they were drinking with Gibson until about 2 a.m. at Moonshadows in Malibu. (Moonshadows is Britney Spears' favorite bar.) While In Touch is less than reliable, the magazine does have a picture of Gibson with two women, beer in hand, wearing the same shirt as in his mugshot. Perezhilton.com also posted pics today of a soused-looking Gibson with two other women.

According to In Touch, Gibson "drank wine at a dinner party, then talked with fellow patrons on the patio."

"Mel had bloodshot eyes," Todd Hausberger of Phoenix tells In Touch. "He was slurring his words."

At one point, Gibson switched to drinking water and put his head in his hands, saying, "I am drunk," recalled Kimberly Lesak, 29, of Louisville, Ky.

By 2 a.m. Mel decided to hit the road. "We all offered him rides and he shrugged it off," says Lesak.

ABC CANCELS MEL'S MINI: While ABC is not commenting on the timing, it has confirmed the cancelation of a Holocaust miniseries it was developing with Gibson's Icon productions. "Given that it has been nearly two years and we have yet to see the first draft of a script, we have decided to no longer pursue this project with Icon," the network said in a statement.

Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke does note that "Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president for movies for television, had said at the time the project was announced that the attention-getting value of having Gibson attached was a factor in greenlighting the Holocaust project."

HUFFINGTON CALLS OUT LIMATO:

Arianna Huffington called on ICM's Ed Limato, who is Gibson's agent, to drop the actor from his list. It's unlikely the fiercely loyal (and old school) Limato will do so, but Arianna made her case nonetheless saying he should do it,

...not because his boss at ICM, Jeff Berg, is Jewish, nor because so many of his clients, including Billy Crystal, are Jewish. This isn't a matter of Jews sticking together or non-Jews showing solidarity. It's about choosing sides in the real battle being fought all across the globe -- the fight between extremism and rationality, between hatred and common decency.

***THE WHOLE STORY***

Suddenly, "Apocalypto" isn't just the title of Mel Gibson's upcoming Mayan epic, but the story of his life. As the entire entertainment media universe ponders the fallout of the actor/director's recent arrest for drunk driving and his subsequent tirade that included anti-Semitic and sexist remarks, Gibson has checked himself into a 12 step-based recovery facility, according to the star's rep, Alan Nierob.

Meanwhile, Endeavor's Ari Emmanuel called out Gibson and every one who works with him on Huffington Post this morning. That would mean most immediately Disney. The Mouse House is releasing "Apocalypto" in December and has, at the very least, millions in marketing money at stake. But even as the Los Angeles Times and others post Gibson's mugshot, the studio isn't budging.

New Mouse honcho Oren Aviv tells Slate's Kim Masters:

I've worked with Mel on several films over the years and we have a great relationship. We all make mistakes and I've accepted his apology to what was a regrettable situation. I wish him the very best on his path to healing.

Christopher Hitchens isn't buying it. Writing on Slate that Gibson is "sick to his empty core with Jew-hatred," Hitchens also suggests that "it is time to lower the boom on him."

Public reaction from around the Internet has been comic, but generally negative (see final paragraphs below).

In other developments TMZ.com, which broke the story, is reporting Gibson has been pulled over twice previously for drunk driving in Malibu and that sheriff's deputies turned a blind eye.

Obviously, it's not the first time the actor has dealt with such controversy. His father is on record as a Holocaust denier, and Gibson's attitude towards Jews was questioned during the release of "The Passion of the Christ." Now his remarks that "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" have reignited concerns.

From TMZ's transcript:

Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

"It's not just his father that is a problem," Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center tells Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke.

Hier:

Look, the issue with Mel Gibson is very simple. Mel Gibson is driving under intoxication. There are no Jews in sight. He can blame his car, he can blame his liquor, he can blame the sheriff. But he can't blame any Jews because there are none around. That's precisely who he blames. Yet that's the problem.

The incident itself has been subject to debate about a police cover-up. Finke says there was no cover-up involved in Gibson's arrest, reporting that the police were following procedure in creating multiple versions of the police report. In a press conference today, a sheriff's rep reiterated this.

Alternately, TMZ.com says that the officer who wrote up the report had to rewrite it on orders from Sheriff Lee Baca. (Gibson did a public service video for a sheriff's charity in 2002, which TMZ has posted.) Early this morning, the website also reported that Malibu police have turned a blind eye to Gibson's drunken driving habits on two other occasions.

Writes TMZ:

TMZ has confirmed that approximately three years ago, Gibson was driving 74 miles per hour on Pacific Coast Highway, one mile from his house, when he was pulled over by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy. Sources say Gibson avoided eye contact with the deputy during the stop and even though the deputy was suspicious of Gibson's sobriety, he let him go.

Approximately one year ago Gibson was stopped again, after driving 64 miles an hour on Pacific Coast Highway -- where the speed limit is 45. Sources say that Gibson was so cocky that he was on his cell phone the entire time he was detained by the deputy. Ultimately, the deputy decided to let him go without giving him a citation.

And there's new information about Friday's arrest. TMZ reports the deputy who arrested Gibson was ordered by superiors to re-write his report and eliminate all references to Gibson's bad conduct and anti-Semitic remarks. Sources tell TMZ that Lt. Crystal Miranda told the arresting deputy that Captain Tom Martin talked to Sheriff Lee Baca who expressed concern that the explosive report might leak to the media and that it needed to be re-written in a sanitized form.

"There is no cover-up," Baca told the Los Angeles Times. "Our job is not to (focus) on what he said. It's to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving and proceed with the case. Trying someone on rumor and innuendo is no way to run an investigation, at least one with integrity."

Gibson did offer up an apology on Sunday, which many felt was half-hearted. He said:

"I acted like a person completely out of control ... and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.

"I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone who I have offended. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry.

"I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health."

That apology didn't wash with the ADL, according to the NYT:

�If it�s true what�s reported, frequently hatred, bigotry and prejudice, which is controlled, explodes at moments of stress and crisis,� said Rabbi Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. �Liquor loosens the tongue of what�s in the mind and in the heart, and in his mind and in his heart is his conspiracy theory about Jews and hatred of Jews.�

Nikki Finke has more from Foxman via his website:

"Mel Gibson's apology is unremorseful and insufficient. It's not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism. His tirade finally reveals his true self and shows that his protestations during the debate over his film The Passion of the Christ, that he is such a tolerant, loving person, were a sham. It may well be that the bigotry has been passed from the father to the son. It is unfortunate that it took an excess of booze and an encounter with a traffic cop to reveal what was really in his heart and mind. We would hope that Hollywood now would realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from this anti-Semite."

Endeavor's Ari Emanuel was among the first Industryites to strike out publicly, writing on Huffington Post:

Now we know the truth. And no amount of publicist-approved contrition can paper it over. People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line.

Privately many in the industry are wondering what to make of a man who left his $20 million-plus per film acting paycheck behind in order to make films like "The Passion of the Christ" and "Apocalypto." Both films were independently financed by Gibson's Icon Productions.

At the Los Angeles Times, Robert Welkos and John Horn couldn't get any executives to speak on the record, but they suggest that Gibson's "Flory," a potential Holocaust miniseries that the actor's production company is working on, for ABC (owned by Disney), could be in trouble.

Variety's piece, written by Gabriel Snyder, says that "Gibson's actions may well end up being a barometer for how forgiving the ticket-buying public can be." Snyder doesn't have anyone on the record, but quotes one studio exec:

"Americans have a very spotty track record in separating the personal lives and the onscreen lives of the movie stars they idolize," said one exec who asked not to be named. He pointed out the struggle Woody Allen still deals with to win back an audience after the scandal involving Soon-Yi (Previn).

For the Mouse House, the stakes are the hefty P&A; commitment it made when it secured domestic distrib rights to "Apocalypto" last summer - a sum that runs into the tens of millions on the typical studio wide release.

If Hollywood studios turn away, one exec speculated, he could try to build his own domestic distrib unit at Icon, which already self- distributes in some foreign territories. "Maybe he'll think about Icon becoming a self-distribution company," the exec said.

Finke also contacted industry execs, writing:

Among the major showbiz players I talked to Saturday and Sunday, most were overwhelmingly angry at Gibson for his alleged slurs, several pledged never to hire him, and many others believed the drunken statements demonstrated Gibson's unmasked feelings about Jews. One or two said they wanted to speak to Gibson first. And all expressed the opinion that he needs to seek urgent help for his self-confessed alcoholic relapse.

Anne Thompson of the Hollywood Reporter follows the thread:

According to industry observers, the next phase of Gibson's rehabilitation should involve his reaching out and showing that he is not the person revealed in that drunken episode. "Crews and artists on his movies really respect him," said one executive who worked with him on "Passion." "He needs to become part of the community. He's become isolated by this weird paranoia."

As for Gibson's fan base, Variety's Snyder takes the pulse on the Web:

And there were signs that even Gibson's conservative Christian fans were not moved by the response. Reaction in the popular conservative online forum FreeRepublic.com, was also largely negative. In response to the statement, one commenter posted, "Gibson showed his true colors last night during his arrest. I argued with you about 'The Passion of the Christ' and his portrayal of Jews. I stood up for Gibson to you and a number of my Jewish friends. Now, I'm sorry I did."

Less enlightened Gibson prose abounds on Us Weekly's site, according to Gawker, including this nugget:

JEWISH PEOPLE ARE PICKED ON BC WE ARE THE CHOOSEN ONES WITH ALL THE MONEY AND EDCUATION BC EDUCATION IS VALUED. LET MEL GIBSON AND HIS MONEY BE VERY HAPPY AND HE PROB WILL PRODUCE ANOTHER FILM BLAMING JEWS FOR THE DEATH OF JESUS.

Then there's Movies.com's How Mel Got So Nutty timeline.

But the ultimate judgement may come via Salon, which has issued a call for Mel Gibson video parodies. They're offering $500 to the best.

MAD MEL'S DRINKING BUDDIES SPEAK OUT...ADL ACCEPTS APOLOGY...PARTY PICS

By Tom Tapp

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