New Film May Harm Gibson's Career [H'wood Bigs vow revenge]

NY Times ^ | 2/26/2004 | SHARON WAXMAN

[SauronOfMordor]

New Film May Harm Gibson's Career

By SHARON WAXMAN

Published: February 26, 2004

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 — Mel Gibson's provocative new film, "The Passion of the Christ," is making some of Hollywood's most prominent executives uncomfortable in ways that may damage Mr. Gibson's career.

Hollywood is a close-knit world, and friendships and social contact are critical in the making of deals and the casting of movies. Many of Hollywood's most prominent figures are also Jewish. So with a furor arising around the film, along with Mr. Gibson's reluctance to distance himself from his father, who calls the Holocaust mostly fiction, it is no surprise that Hollywood — Jewish and non-Jewish — has been talking about little else, at least when it's not talking about the Oscars.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, the principals of DreamWorks, have privately expressed anger over the film, said an executive close to the two men.

The chairmen of two other major studios said they would avoid working with Mr. Gibson because of "The Passion of the Christ" and the star's remarks surrounding its release.

Neither of the chairmen would speak for attribution, but as one explained: "It doesn't matter what I say. It'll matter what I do. I will do something. I won't hire him. I won't support anything he's part of. Personally that's all I can do."

The chairman said he was angry not just because of what he had read about the film and its portrayal of Jews in relation to the death of Jesus, but because of Mr. Gibson's remarks defending his father, Hutton Gibson. Last week in a radio interview the elder Mr. Gibson repeated his contention that the Holocaust was "all — maybe not all fiction — but most of it is." Asked about his father's Holocaust denial in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC, the movie star told her to "leave it alone."

The other studio chairman, whose family fled European anti-Semitism before the Holocaust, was less emphatic but said, "I think I can live without him." But others said there would be no lasting backlash against Mel Gibson. "If the movie works, I don't think it will hurt him," said John Lesher, an agent with Endeavor. "People here will work with the anti-Christ if he'll put butts in seats." Mr. Lesher added, "He put his own money where his mouth is. He invested in himself."

As Mr. Lesher implied, Hollywood is also a place of businesspeople, and Mr. Gibson is a proven movie star, popular with audiences. There are few actors with that kind of bankability, no matter their personal views. Mr. Gibson is also a capable director. So some of the initial reactions to his film may fade over time.

Mr. Gibson not only directed and helped write the $30 million film, but he also paid for it, including production and marketing costs, out of his own pocket, which Hollywood has filled.

As an actor and successful director, from "Mad Max" (1979) through "Lethal Weapon" (1987) and its sequels to the Oscar-winning "Braveheart" (1995), Mr. Gibson has long been a Hollywood pet. But he has also been known as a prankster and a self-confessed abuser of various substances. Many in the relentlessly secular movie industry see his recent religious conversion — he practices a traditionalist version of Roman Catholicism — as another form of addiction.

Last Friday the media billionaire Haim Saban, former owner of the Fox Family Channel, sent a concerned e-mail message to friends about Mr. Gibson and his father.

The message forwarded an article by the journalist Mitch Albom calling on Mr. Gibson to repudiate his father's denial of the Holocaust. Mr. Saban sent the article to, among others, Roger Ailes, who heads Fox News; Norman Pattiz, who runs the Westwood One radio network; and Michael R. Milken, the securities felon turned philanthropist.

Amid the daily dealings of Hollywood, the film and the star have been fodder for unfavorable gossip. Dustin Hoffman has talked to friends about what he called Mr. Gibson's "strangeness" during the ABC interview. The producer Mike Medavoy said Mr. Gibson's religious zealotry made him feel uncomfortable. Mr. Hoffman is Jewish; Mr. Medavoy is the child of Holocaust survivors.

"One question is, `What propelled him to make the movie about the passion of Christ?' " Mr. Medavoy said. "It makes me a little squeamish. What makes me squeamish about religion in general is that people think they have the answer: `I think my God is the right God.' How do you argue against that?"

[Wolverine]

This is the city that will honor Leni Reifenstahl in the Oscar ceremony this year?

 

Leni Riefenstahl, Filmmaker and Nazi Propagandist, Dies at 101

 

Hollywood crucifies Mel Gibson...yet glorifies this woman..

 

The Federal Republic's version has been denazified.

Her greatest success she made with the documentary film »Triumph des Willens« named after the Reich Party Congress 1934 in Nuremberg which got the highest awards: The gold medal in Venice in 1935 and the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. However, at the end of the war this film destroyed Leni Riefenstahl's career, for now it had no longer been recognized as a piece of art but been condemned as a National Socialist propaganda film. Her world-famous film about the Olympic games made the same experience. That film included two parts, part I »Fest der Völker« and part 2 »Fest der Schönheit« , and did also get the highest awards: the gold medal in Paris in 1937, the first price in Venice as the world's best film in 1938, the Olympic Award by the IOC in 1939, and in 1956 it had been classified as one of the world's best ten films.

[Caipirabob]

From the book (and the movie...a line that stuck in my head)

Jesus: No man is greater than his master. If they persecute me, they will persecute you...

[cajun-jack]

didn't know anything about him till the other day....

[ClearBlueSky]

Is this the same Hollywood that has Scientologists spouting off every chance they get? The same one with all the liberals raving against censorship; where Richard Gere praises the Dalai Lama, everyone is proud of their latest hot 'cult' and the rest wear their atheism like a badge?
It's not about RELIGION- it's about CHRISTIANITY.
God works in mysterious ways- Mel Gibson is the latest.

[cyborg]

love your ping list :) How is this HURTING him? These SLIMERS are just angry to discover masses of christians, jews, YES EVEN MUSLIMS,etc. are going to watch a film about Christ. A film about Christ as opposed to filthy, dirty nasty vulgarity on film.

[bootless]

God willing, Mel will one day be in Lucas's financial bracket.

Well, that might be next Tuesday.

[Revolting cat!]

Excuse me, but I notice you on every thread about this movie making sarcastic comments. Could youplease explain your motivation?

None whatsoever, and my comments are as sarcastic as your screen name. No, they're just sober, in face of the feverish entertainment fanatics treating a silly movie as if it was a Catholic High Mass. Nothing more than that, and no harm intended!

[LisaMalia]

Thanks for posting. I'd not heard of this before. If I were of the Jewish faith, I would be calling for heads to roll on this one.

I don't watch the Oscars anyway, I swore off award shows after seeing them become nothing more than platforms for liberals to spew their garbage, ad naseum.

[jackbill]

SHARON WAXMAN

Hmmmm?

[mrobison]

Ms. Waxman,

You are an idiot.

After this film, Mel Gibson will become one of the most powerful people in town.

Deal with it.

[Theophilus]

It's one thing to be moved emotionally and from what I've read and heard, this is a very emotional movie. It's another to be "moved". I think most people are being affected emotionally, not in a life shattering "movement". It's one thing to commit to faith, I mean truly commit to faith. It's quite another to have had an emotional experience.

I'm with you, but remember that Noah's Flood started with a few raindrops, and none of them was willing to take the blame.

[Ditter]

So what if the Hollywood big wigs hate him now that this movie is out, they hated him before. His movies were always panned. I hope Mel tells them to stick it!

[chiller]

well then...a BILLION $$$ is virtually guaranteed.

[LisaMalia]

Nothing more than that, and no harm intended!

I've read many of your posts. Harm is almost always intended. You bait people. The cowards way out, some would say. You think you are outrageous in some pathetic way, but most seem to ignore you, with good reason.

I just wanted to take the time to let you know I'll include you in my prayers tonight.

[Miss Marple]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I think that it is more than a silly movie.

Remember, God chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.

[CFC__VRWC]

If soft core pornographers such as Katzenberg and Geffen actually spent some time reading the Gospels instead of spitting on them, they might even understand what Jesus was saying through Matthew and how it could well apply to Mel Gibson.

"If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words - go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gommorah on the day of judgement than for that town."

Matthew 10: 13-15.

[sarasmom]

Ding Ding Ding!
We have a winner folks.
The article immediately struck me as incredibly stereotyping Hollywood as being controlled by powerfull Jewish moguls with dark intent.
Rather blatant anti-semetism from the NY Times, dont you think?
Frankly, I dont personally know very many people of the Jewish faith.The few I do know are not rich and powerfull, nor do they make a big deal of their "Jewishness" anymore than the Christians I know make a major issue of their Christianity to casual or business contacts.
Why is this NY Times writer proclaiming that Jews in Hollywood are out to punish Christian Mel Gibson for making a film about Jesus Christ?
Somehow, mainly based on lifelong osmosis,I am under the impression that observant Jews and observant Christians have much more in common with each other, than they do with persons perhaps raised in families of either faith, but who do not believe in, nor practice the actual religions of their parents.
I mean I have grandparents who were devout Christians.
That does not automatically make me a Christian, even a backsliding one.
Just because a person was born to a family who described themselves as Jewish, does not mean that person is really Jewish.If they do not believe in, or conduct themselves IAW the Jewish faith, are they still Jewish?
Substitute Christian for Jewish and Jewish for Christian in my rant, it is still valid.
Screw the NYTimes.
Secular socialists are singularly inept in commenting on matters pertaining to religious faith.

[PhilipFreneau]

Hollywood has been blacklisting Christians for years. This is nothing new.

[CyberAnt]

But .. because it's a blockbuster, Mel will have plenty of money to do whatever he wants.

Hollyweird is just jealous of Mel's success, and that's why they're whining.

[Tempest]

I'm sure that Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, The Dixie Chicks, and other established liberal defenders of freedom of expression and speech will rush to Mel Gibson's side in a show of support. . . .


Let the double standard begin!