Posted on 07/30/2006 5:13:24 PM PDT by familyop
MEL Gibson was speeding, drunk and absolutely certain of how this episode would end when he was pulled over and arrested by a police officer in Malibu.
Gibson, 50, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy James Mee he "owned" Malibu as he was driven, handcuffed, to the Los Hills sheriff's station early on Friday morning, and he would "get even" with him.
"I'm going to f--- you," Gibson reportedly said.
"You're going to regret you ever did this to me."
What followed will cast a shadow over the remainder of the American-born, Australian-raised Gibson's career as one of Hollywood's most admired and bankable actors, directors and producers.
Mee's official arrest report, partially released on the entertainment news website TMZ.com, and confirmed by an industry reporter and The Washington Post, described Gibson as "blurting out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks".
These included references to "f------ Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the war in the world", before asking the deputy: "Are you a Jew?"
According to the TMZ site, the deputy made an audio recording of the incident from the time Gibson's 2006 Lexus was pulled over for driving at 139 km/h in a 70 km/h zone on the Pacific Coast Highway in the affluent Los Angeles beachside suburb at 2.36am.
The gravity of his situation quickly struck Gibson, according to Deputy Mee. "My life is f-----," he said, after being told he was being arrested.
Gibson subsequently returned a blood alcohol reading of .12. The legal limit in California is .08.
"I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse," Gibson said yesterday.
In his statement of apology, Gibson said he regretted saying "things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable". However, the actor did not directly address the anti-Semitic remarks he was heard to have uttered.
Reaction to Gibson's arrest has been muted. The story did not break until Friday afternoon. TMZ posted its copy of the deputy's report on its website later that evening.
At risk is Gibson's ambivalent relationship with the Jewish lobby, quietly powerful in the film and television industry and in American politics.
Many in the Jewish community were outraged at the anti-Semitic message they claimed was implicit in Gibson's 2004 bloody blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, which he directed and funded with $US25 million from his personal fortune.
At a time the star's father, Hutton Gibson, denied the Holocaust in a radio interview, describing it as "maybe not all fiction, but most of it is".
The success of the film, with its international return of $US611 million, marked Gibson, a conservative Catholic, as a powerful political and cultural force.
In Australia, the executive director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, said Gibson had a history of anti-Semitic behaviour, citing as an example the The Passion of the Christ. "The episode, regrettably, is not a surprise," Dr Rubenstein said.
Gibson's success and influence hid what the actor yesterday acknowledged had become a losing battle with alcoholism. He had previously been arrested for driving under the influence while filming in Canada in 1984. At that point he returned to his farm near Yackandandah, in north-eastern Victoria, for two years to dry out, before resuming his film career in the US.
Deputy Mee said he found in the Lexus a bottle of Cazardores tequila in a brown paper bag "within easy reach" of Gibson while he had been driving. It was three-quarters full.
sniff sniff .......
Generally speaking, relapses for alcoholics are nasty things. I'll just leave it at that.
well... not if he was on the wagon for a while.... alcoholism is nothing if not patient....
I wonder if his slurs while drunk had anything to do with the way Jewish leaders smeared him for making The Passion. That might have given him a huge resentment.
I didn't think the Passion was anti-semitic, but I do remember all the debate. This episode makes me think that perhaps there was something to the accusations that the film was anti-semetic afterall. Maybe I just didn't see it.
The things Gibson apparently said are disgraceful. The fact that Mel uttered such things makes me think he may very well be a Jew hater.
Hard to see how that could lead him to conclude that Jews are responsible for all of the wars in the world.
It seems to be that Mel has sucummbed to the fabled disease known as Celebrititis. Symptoms of the disease include believing oneself to be above the law, and superior to mere peons.
I agree and and living through it now with my oldest son.Prayers for Mel.
Good Grief....Mel Gibson, Acting like Cartman. :(
Alcoholism can be successfully battled, and I hope Gibson is up to the task.
"The Jews are responsible for all the war in the world"
Gibson's irrational and demented world view will be a far more difficult demon to slay.
I gather from various posts that .12 is not that high.
Personally, I think he has other problems. He made a truly brilliant film in the Passion, but like any artist, he was simply doing what he did. That doesn't mean the rest of his life was great, or that one would agree with him on anything except his artistic vision for that one film. He's not a conservative, but more of a libertarian with a bent for conspiracy theories and occasional moments of religion.
His father was/is quite weird and is a Holocaust-denying US-hater and a bunch of other unattractive things. Mel Gibson himself seems to have some odd and somewhat extreme beliefs that probably come from his father's influence. In addition, I think he probably has some resentment because of the attacks he got from liberal Jewish organizations before the Passion was even released, not because they seriously thought it was anti-semitic (it wasn't at all, IMHO), but because they were under the mistaken impression that Gibson was a conservative and this was a way of getting at him. Put that together with alcohol and whatever else he may have been taking, and you have one really out of control, angry person.
I hope he gets help.
People are usually not at their pinnacle of logic while drunk. He did apologize for his statements, however - something more than those who attacked him for his movie did.
So his anti-semitism is understandable, right?
Why not blame Jews for starting all wars, right?
Prayers for him.
Talk is cheap, Mel.
I read the statement today by the ADL that pretty much said Gibson was a bigot and they do not accept his apology etc ect....My own take on this, is although he may be anti-semitic, I think his statements while drunk were more of him being self destructive than anti-semitic. I mean what is the worst possible thing he could say to destroy his career? And before he said that, he first said "my life is f***ed". The dude has a major drinking problem, and I think before the ADL condemns him, they should issue statements first about Hillary Clinton who they seem to have no problem ignoring everytime her anti-semitic issues come up.
"In wine there is truth."
Sad to say, but I believe Mel just said what he really believed all along. I trully pray he can get back on the wagon. However, I'm afraid his credibility is somewhat at question now.
So, if he drove off a bridge and killed a young woman, he would have a viable career as a Mass. Senator?
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