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?"

[LowOiL]

So the Jews of Hollywood are out to destroy Gibson? I wonder if they will blame it on the Romans?

I laughed so hard, I think I need a kleenex to clean my computer screen.

[been_lurking]

"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."

And so.... He's making a fortune without your help (and without having to give you a slice of the profits.) That's what really chaps these fellows.

[mr.pink]

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.

I hope the vicious Hollywood nancyboy mobsters do just that....they'll make "executives American Christians uncomfortabe in ways that may damage Mr. Gibson's their careers".

[Doctor Don]

Mel Gibson may lose his last penny and make his last film....
but he will be eminently successful and complete because he has honored God and His gift to the world. I will share my last dollar with Mel Gibson!

[dansangel]

Oh agreed - absolutely. .45MAN and I only began our boycott of Hollywierd during the 2000 election and spewing of the self-appointed political geniuses such as Alec Blowhard Baldwin, Sean Pinhead, ad nauseum.

Prior to that, I was a movie junkie. Since then, The "Passion" was the first time I have stepped foot in a theater in almost 3 and a half years. I refuse to support their liberal tripe.

[FrankR]

"[H'wood Bigs vow revenge]

Let's beat them too the punch...we should - and suggest that all of our friends do the same - see Mel's movie, not once...but TWICE, or take a friend.

Then, when the DVD comes out, buy not one, but TWO.

This movie is already destined to be a blockbuster, so let's really knock the h'wood weirdos a loop, and DOUBLE the impact.

Mel deserves to make a good profit on this movie, just for the crap he's having to take from all the lefties. And nothing tells a liberal to "eat sh*t and die" quite like money does.

[uncbob]

Jews crucified Christ because he was a threat to their power.

It was the leaders that viewed him as a threat not the average Jew if I read the NT correctly

He was bneing accepted by the Jews as proved by His sermons that drew thousands and His triumphal entry into Jerusalem
It was His popularity with the masses that set the leaders against Him

[King Prout]

reading this article, filled with one after another non-sequitur, one after another smug and self-contradictory statement, fills me with an urge to express myself fully concerning these bellyaching backstabbing people.
An urge I cannot fulfill, lest I be banned.
So, I must rest content with a very loud and sincerely state "JUST DAMN!"

[prairiebreeze]

I believe you are correct Wolfstar

[savedbygrace]

If they were smart, they'd wait to see how big "The Passion" opens before they shoot their mouths off.

[mr.pink]

I saw the "Passion" last night. Hollywood doesn't have the class, vision nor talent to come within lightyears of producing a film that will even come close.

Are you saying the current hollywood high art genre of potty humor is beyond your intellectual capacity?

At first it confounded me, but once I realized Ben Stiller is no less than a modern day Charlie Chaplin with perpetual intestinal problems, I'm prepared to hail their genius.

[Zack Nguyen]

If the movie makes money he can do whatever he wants.

[Poison Pill]

What exactly are we supposed to learn?

[Dionysius]

Another, more famous person considered religion an addiction -- Karl Marx' "opiate of the people". These secularists merely hate what they fear. Mel Gibson may never win another Oscar, but he won't be out of work. His movies are financially successful, unlike the precious outputs of liberal darlings such as Spike Lee, Altman and Meathead Reiner. Money will ultimately tell the tale.

[chiller]

"Mel has achieved escape velocity."

Great line !

The headline gives the impression that the Hollywood moguls;
1) have control over Mel Gibson, and
2) that Gibson gives a rats ass.

At one time perhaps they (and he) did, but no more. He made that perfectly clear in the Sawyer interview.

MESSAGE TO HOLLYWOOD: There is something, and someone bigger than you. And here's the scary part. Given the way Hollywood mimics successes, guess what type of projects your stockholders will demand you make. Enjoy.

Think of this; "Passion" is about religion and worse Christianity, has no english speaking parts, is subtitled, has no "stars.", and will likely earn more than anything, ever. Hollywood's universe is about to change. Get used to it.

[dansangel]

I am so ***ROFL*** at your post. There is no way I can top that.

Thank you for the best grins I've had all day! :-)

[anniegetyourgun]

I don't think they care, sbg. They are too busy trying to draw our kids to see "Confessions of A Teenage Drama Queen" - made by Disney, and getting 1 and 1/2 stars from most critics!

[King Prout]

(centurion led away, laughing helplessly)
Pilate: So... does anyone else find this... wisable?
(centurions stifle laughter)
Pilate: No one cawes to have a giggle at the name... Biggus... Dickus?
(centurions are losing it)
Pilate: He has a wife, you know...
(centurions stiffen in dread)
Pilate: Hew name is... Incontinentia
(centurions relax)
Pilate: Incontinentia Buttocks
(centurions collapse to the ground in helpless laughter)

[alarmguy]

quoted by Dr. Eckleburg:
"God willing, Mel will one day be in Lucas's financial bracket.But Lucas counts his cash in the billions; Mel's still stuck in the paltry millions."

Something tells me that he's not really concerned with wealth.