Posted on 07/29/2006 1:28:31 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
Lt. Steve Smith, in charge of the detective bureau for the Malibu/Lost Hills station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, confirmed to me just now that "the contents seem to be similar" between the official reports and the four pages posted by TMZ.com on the Internet alleging Mel Gibson made anti-Semitic slurs -- "fucking Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and asking the arresting deputy "Are you a Jew?" -- during his DUI arrest early Friday morning. Smith denied TMZ.com's charge that the sheriff's department was involved in a "cover-up" of Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade detailed in deputy Jim Mee's first arrest report. "TMZ has learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps," the website claims. But Smith told me emphatically, "There's no whitewash. I've seen the first report, and the supplemental report, and it looks to be the same thing as what's on the Internet. The contents that are on the Internet are covered in both those reports." That is the first official confirmation from the Sheriff's station that Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic rants are included in the official reports about his DUI arrest.
Lt. Smith told me that it is the station's normal procedure not to release the arrest report until it's submitted to the District Attorney's office for possible action. Also, according to porocedure, Deputy Mee's report, he said, was reviewed by the filing detective "to see if there's maybe corrections or additions or elements of the crime that should have been included, or just additional information that wasn't known at the time of the report. And then a supplementary report is generated because that's the proper way to add information to the first report. In this case, the original report had a lot of this nuance in it: how Mr. Gibson was conducting himself and behaving. Traditionally, in a drunk-driving arrest, or any type of arrest, the deputy wants to paint a picture of what he's dealing with at the time. And, the reason for that is it helps the detective or the D.A. to put the contact into some sort of context. The other purpose for describing the context is that it assists the deputy in remembering the incident when the court case can be four, or six, or eight months down the road."
As soon as TMZ's Internet pages surfaced about Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic slurs, Hollywood's entertainment leaders began phoning one another asking if could possibly be true. (Already this morning, I personally spoke with several prominent players wanting to know more.) Now, with my confirmation from Lt. Smith that those pages are similar to the official Sheriff's reports, showbiz moguls are certain to be shocked and angry. Still, to be fair, whether any person should be held responsible for what may have been allegedly under-the-influence ramblings is certainly debatable. But Gibson is a special case because his worldwide mega-hit The Passion of the Christ was criticized by some Jewish leaders as anti-Semitic, and Gibson's father, a local religious leader, has said that the Holocaust did not happen. Hutton Gibson in statements has decried the Holocaust as "fiction" and claimed there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before. The younger Gibson, however, has repeatedly denied his movie was anti-Semitic. But the actor/director's views about his father's Holocaust denial have been under scrutiny. When asked by an interviewer in early 2004 whether the Holocaust happened, the actor / director / producer responded that some of his best friends ''have numbers on their arms,'' then added: ''Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps.'' But in the same interview, Gibson said his father, Hutton Gibson, had ''never lied to me in his life,'' and Holocaust scholars have cited those and other statements as evidence that he has failed to disassociate himself clearly from his father's views. Perhaps to counter that, Gibson late last year announced he was developing a nonfiction mini-series about the Holocaust for ABC. His TV production company will base the four-hour miniseries for ABC on the self-published memoir of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis but who lost several relatives in concentration camps. Gibson was not expected to act in the mini-series, nor was it certain that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to The New York Times. But Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president for movies for television, told the paper at the time that the attention-getting value of having Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor. ''Controversy's publicity, and vice versa,'' Taylor was quoted as saying. Now it remains to be seen whether the contents of these LA County Sheriff's Department arrest reports will make Gibson's Holocaust project too hot to handle for the network.
ABC's parent company, Disney is distributing Gibson's latest Hollywood movie project, Apocalypto, through its Buena Vista Pictures Distribution arm. The action epic set before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America about the bloody decline of the ancient Mayan civilization (filmed in their language) wrapped production earlier this year and planned for a Dec. 8 opening. In his most recent act of controversy, Gibson recently compared the fearmongering and human sacrifice of the Mayans to President George W. Bush's political actions. Previously, the Bush administration, Christian religious leaders, and conservative politicos had embraced Gibson for making The Passion of the Christ despite the overwhelmingly negative response to the film inside Jewish circles.
Hollywood, especially its Jewish moguls, has simultaneously rejected and embraced Gibson before, during and after Passion. Right before the movie was released, several top Hollywood Jewish executives saw an anti-Semitic subtext in the religious movie and pledged privately never to work with Gibson because of it. But once Passion became a surprise hit at the box office, and rang up humongous theatrical grosses worldwide , much of the heated criticism of Gibson began to cool inside Hollywood circles. And, in some quarters, the actor / director / producer began to be hailed as a genius for tapping into the zeitgest of those spiritual moviegoers often ignored by Hollywood moviemakers.
Given today's confirmation by the Sheriff's Office that Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade is in his DUI arrest reports, the debate will rage anew in Hollywood and Jewish circles about Gibson's true feelings about Jews. The actor / director / producer works closely with many Jewish VIPs in the entertainment business at talent agencies, in law firms, and at the studios. Of course, we haven't heard from Gibson himself yet. But there can be no doubt this official confirmation is very, very damaging to his career.
Leni
Well, I've never made anti-semite comments when falling down drunk or stone cold sober.
You never heard the old Latin saying "In vino, veritas"?
You're very naive.
Every chance he got!
Yep...as they say, Karma's a -----! [rhymes with witch]
"A breath test indicated Gibson's blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, Whitmore said. The legal limit in California is 0.08 percent."
Here is some indication of what "lower inhibitions" are when drinking. He was clocked doing 87 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Most people, when sober, don't do that. I'll bet Mel doesn't. But drink affects some people that way.
Alcohol has looong been known to loosen tongues, it's hardly debateable. Why is this so objectionable??
Snort!
Fortunes later, he's probably glad he did it himself. Unless the resentment of Jews you mention in Hollywood is political in nature, rather than professional.
Jeezuz H, What the hell kind of logic is THAT???
Democrats hate Jews and Republicans love Jews????
Get real.. History has shown that there are Jew haters everywhere and their "pals" today could be the ones to dump them into ovens 20 years from now.
Your branding an entire group of people of being anti-Semitic is exactly how Jews end up in ovens. /irony
Alcohol brings out the real ugly side of many folks and removes the civilized mask people wear.
We've all got a real ugly side, but I don't think anyone of us would say this ugliness is "the true me".
Prolonged alcohol abuse lowers us further and further to our base instinctual level. Yes, you are correct in that regard, and it tends to remove our "civilized" persona.
We may be this person when reduced by alcohol abuse. But to say we are this person in total is not true.
That tirade by Gibson sounds like a word for word DU post. I wonder if he is a DUmmie.
Hannity & Colmes {Hannity did the entire interview with him.]
Today Show with Matt Lauer.
Access Hollywood with Nancy [whatever her last name is].
There's much more, he did it EVERY time he got a chance and managed to just throw it in with out even being asked about GW.
This started before the 'Passion" even came out...when the buzz about the movie was just beginning...and continued on up to election time on interview after interview.
feet-of-clay bump
Yeah, I had always thought of him as a conservative leaning person (surface impression)...hard to tell really, unless you sit down and have a couple of beers (ha!!) with him. He might just be spouting the Hollywood polical BS to generate buzz for "Apocalypto".
Why? Seriously, why does he deserve a break?
i am sure Pat Buchanan is very proud of Mel right now
2 sickos
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