Posted on 08/01/2006 5:11:10 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
ACTOR Mel Gibson today apologised for making anti-Semitic remarks after his recent arrest for drunken driving and asked to meet with members of the Jewish community to begin a "path for healing".
"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark," Gibson said in a statement. "I want to apologise specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested," he said.
Gibson, who directed 2004's blockbuster movie The Passion of The Christ about the last hours of the life of Jesus, was caught speeding in his car in the early hours of last Friday, and he went on a rant in which he is widely reported to have said "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world".
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department report, parts of which have appeared on celebrity website TMZ.com, is laced with anti-Semitic statements and expletives said by the actor.
The report said an opened bottle of tequila was found in the car, and that at one point Gibson tried to evade arrest.
But it has been the anti-Semitic remarks that have raised the biggest outcry from members of the Jewish community in and out of Hollywood because before Passion, the Oscar-winning director of Braveheart and star of the Lethal Weapon movies denied he or the movie were anti-Semitic.
His statement today sought a meeting with Jewish community leaders in which he could explain his actions.
"I'm not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing," Gibson said.
He said he has begun "an ongoing program of recovery," but admitted "I cannot do it alone".
"I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery," Gibson said.
Several Jewish leaders said Gibson must first complete his recovery program and perform acts of goodwill such as visiting Nazi death camps before they would answer his plea for help.
"We will know when the time is, but the time is certainly not when his press agents think it is," said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
"I certainly think he is facing his alcoholism, and now I think he needs to face the statements of bigotry and anti-Semitism the same."
The Anti-Defamation League "accepted the apology" and National Director Abraham Foxman said that when Gibson's recovery was complete, "we will be ready and willing to help him".
A spokeswoman for ABC said the network canceled development of a Holocaust miniseries because nearly two years had passed since ABC struck a deal with Gibson's production company to make it and it had not yet even seen a script.
Michael Gennaco, who heads the sheriff department's oversight board, defended the department against claims it gave Gibson favourable treatment during his arrest and in its report.
Mr Gennaco said an initial probe showed LA sheriffs did not violate department policies, and added the final arrest report would include inflammatory comments made by Gibson.
That report will be made public when prosecutors present their case.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney said a date for filing formal charges had yet to be decided.
It's stage fright.
That's good where any competition is concerned.
You will win...;o)
"Somebody else says this is between Gibson and the Jewish community"
Yeah, that was you, buddy .....remember this?
"Apology NOT ACCEPTED. And I'm not Jewish."
"Gibson doesn't owe you an apology." ----toddlintown
Your post makes no sense. Sleep it off.
so what
You apparently know little about alcohol. Sometimes much truth comes out, other times it's so much bull.
It's not as simple as you suggest.
You are right.
I agree, but there is a segment of our society that will milk this for all it is worth to them and to them alone. It's always the same with that segment.
****
Right on, RightOnline!
"seems" being the key word there.
bravo
silly
"hanging out" --- oh my!!! (sarcasm off)
You know I don't mean anything nasty by saying this, nopardons, but I must say that if you had ever gotten wasted you perhaps would know more about it. Take it from a real veteran (military and wastedness).
;-)
I think Mel will find hope.
Well said.
Mel is a fifty year old married man and father, who is a celebrity. He knows that he is an easily addicted person, claims to have been a life long alcoholic, yet, there he was, out for the night, ALONE, and drinking in a bar, driving a car while drunk, with an already drunk some from bottle of Tequila in the car. What would my ever having been drunk, help me to understand such mordant and gross stupidity?
If you're such an "expert"........explain that to me and then go and try to explain it to your wife. :-)
Darn ................you will always be a stiff.
You really are "an innocent" or just a relatively old fool.
Jennifer O'Neill ---- Summer of '42
She (Ms. O'Neill's character) was despondent after learning of her husband's death in the war.
Keep learning. Some people seemingly have more pain than you.
Hostility and ignorance are not a pleasant thing, I suppose.
You will be happy that I have pinged few FReepers to this post. Because this couple of hours of yours on Free Republic may show mostly everyone what your never 'drinking to excess' does to someone!
*************
The following are your lamentable words.
Just part of one night with your superior undrinking mentality on FR!
*****
2/22/06 ........... ..........
******************************
Here are your subjective, non-alcohlic words:
"Just keep posting and soon, far more people than you can imagine, will know just how very little you know and understand about anything."
"You have the comprehension of roadkill and the emotional level of a slow 12 year old."
"It was far too advanced for you to be able to comprehend."
"Just look in a mirror, open your mouth, and what comes out of it, will be textbook emotional bilge. Do that...because obviously, you have no idea what emotional bilge is."
"You really ARE blind to what we are trying to do in Iraq. Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh!"
"you're uneducated and posting emotional bilge."
" You are not only pathetically ignorant, but also beyond help."
"Oh good grief! That's a ridiculous statement."
"You are either very young, or never managed to acquired and maturity nor knowledge, as you aged. You haven't posted anything to substantiate your prurient tinfoil."
" WOW........you really are uneducated!"
"Since you know almost NOTHING about ANYTHING, .............."
"Where is the source for that ridiculous protestation?"
"But, if that is the case, then YOU are a liar. Many thanks for proving, yet once again, that you are incapable of reasoned debate, that you only personally insult and call names"
"Obviously, you KNOW NOTHING!"
" You live in a fairy tale delusion; YOU! Facts and reality mean less than nothing to you."
"When you finally manage to overcome your difficulties in seeing and comprehending not only the written world, but reality, get back to me."
"the written world" ----- brilliant
LOL
You qualify as the angriest woman on this site.
People drink until they're drunk for one of two reasons: it's fun, or because they lost control of the throttle.
If you'd ever been drunk before you'd understand that it can be fun, and that it's easy to intend to just drink a little and lose control.
Sure Mel should have never put himself in this situation, given his previous aknowledgements of a problem he should have known he needs to work harder to keep on the throttle than most people. But people screw up, that's what happens in life, the great lessons tend to be learned after a mistake.
I'll be glad when the articles about Mel cease. If you truly believe Mel Gibson hates every Jew he meets, do whatever makes you happy, boycott his movies, call him an anti-semite, whatever.
He sold us on his Jesus movie on the strength of his clean-cut image of a God-loving family man. Obviously his cover has been blown. He could've been a hypocrite who served up that image with the help of his spinmeisters, who knows? Let him get the medical and psychiatric help that he needs.
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