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.
No one was better at getting out ahead of these things that the Clintons. Put it all out there, on a Friday. And intimidate the heck out of anyone who dares challenge you.
The Kennedys are pretty good too.
PR..they live by it, don't they? As public apologies go- it was eloquent- right up to the point where he DIDN'T include Jews.
What's that quote...Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you say?
That's about where I see him- what he did NOT say speaks volumes about him.
Gibson should to something proactive to right the balance w/r/t Israel. He should make a movie that memorializes the Israel struggle in the modern era.
I though his portrayal of my people was a little over the top but always said to myself, "That's Hollywood".
WRONG!!!!!!!!
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As a Catholic what then am I to think of films like Agnes of God (directed by Norman Jewison) or Showtime's openly and proudly anti-Catholic Sister Mary Explains it all, produced and directed by Jewish folks?
Hey you're talking LIEberal Jews, I thought Mel wasn't an anti-semite but I guess just like everyone else in Hollywood Jews included, they are all phoney pieces of crap looking for another fool to be parted with his/her money.
"Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Matthew 12:34
Especially when you have been drinking.
Norman Jewison isn't Jewish. He's Canadian! But he got the job of directing Fiddler on the Roof because even the movie executives thought he was Jewish. When he announced he wasn't Jewish, he got the job of directing Jesus Christ Superstar!
That will be me next February, if the crick don't rise.
Good for you!
Mel will either tailspin and go completely nuts, or he will man up, take his knocks, make amends as much as possible, and make the best of what's left.
I agree completely. As a Christian, I was moved by his film, but I now question his motivation for making the film. What a shame.
I hope he takes a long time off to think about things and repent.
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.
The Jews in Australia, his home country, have said that he has made other anti-semitic comments long before he made "The Passion of Christ". The acorn here, hasn't fallen far from the tree.
Back atcha!
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