Posted on 07/29/2010 3:55:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Leonardo DiCaprio is withdrawing from a Mel Gibson-directed flick about vikings in the wake of the domestic abuse scandal, RadarOnline.com has exclusively confirmed.
“Not a chance,” said a source, close to the Inception star, when asked if he was still planning to star in Gibson’s next project.
The decision is a major setback for the Oscar-winning actor/director, who is facing allegations of domestic abuse and child endangerment.
It also lends support to critics who are suggesting Mel won’t be able to recover from the Oksana Grigorieva scandal.
Oksana, 40, has accused Gibson, 54, of punching her in the face twice as she held their infant daughter Lucia during a domestic dispute at his Malibu mansion on January 6.
After allegedly hitting Oksana on the head and mouth, she has claimed, Mel then choked her.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department detectives are investigating the allegation along with Mel’s claim that Oksana tried to extort him with threats of a scandal.
Mel was interviewed on Sunday but refused to answer questions about the incident, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Mel’s profane-laced rants, recorded by Oksana and obtained by RadarOnline.com, are laced with racial slurs -- including the N-word -- and demands for repeated sexual favors.
The viking film was to be DiCaprio’s first picture with Mel.
A source close to DiCaprio said the star, who is currently basking in the release of his wildly acclaimed box-office topping movie Inception, did not want to risk his reputation, with being associated with Mel.
“Leo has earned the right to pick and choose who he works with and Mel Gibson is not one of them,” the source added.
The as-yet untitled project is being produced by Graham King and Mel’s Icon Productions.
Variety had previously reported DiCaprio had long been fascinated by Viking culture and was poised to play one in a storyline that will be as unsparing as Mel’s other hit period directing efforts, Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.
Before DiCaprio’s withdrawal, shooting was slated to begin in fall 2010.
Comment is being sought from DiCaprio.
Maybe if DiCaprio beat up his girlfriend?
Although it was sympathetic to moslems in a pre-9/11 kind of way, I thought the Viking cast of Michael Crichton's "The 13th Warrior" was pretty convincing. Perhaps Mel ought to round up that gang.
Maybe if he had a girlfriend....
He is not handsome (has a round head) and is kind of girly.
He is bland as an actor IMO and I really can't see him as a compelling Viking.
Where are all the men in Hollywood?
I understand Mel had one that DiCaprio can have. Of course she's a little beat up, but I'm sure she runs just fine.
apparently you missed the words “i bet”. clearly a disclaimer that it is not fact, but merely highly probable in my estimation.
That’s my opinion, too. Not every choice isa political one, even in Hollywood. I bet most choices are decided on fiscal grounds.
Spoken like a true “virile” “alpha male” who just can’t be “tamed to exclusivity” by any female no longer of gestational age. The procreative urge is apparently even stronger than any religious belief or vow before God.
What I can’t understand is whether you think that the second woman was a pure “golddigger,” or just the woman willing to provide her fecund womb to the Uber-male Mel. Since apparently reproduction trumps all social mores in your explanation of Mel’s behavior, why doesn’t he just get a harem of non-demanding women to bear his babies? They can shut up and be grateful that he impregnates them and lets them “suck his c@ck,” as he demanded in his drunken (as you believe) phone call.
Sorry, bud, you sound like so many guys I’ve worked with or met in bars who excuse their sneaky infidelities on the grounds that their wives are trying to domesticate them but their virility just can’t be kept in a little married cage. I’m not saying that’s what YOU do - just that you sound like them. All self-justifying blather to make excuses for the fact that they are too selfish to keep their wedding vows.
It may not always be easy to do when you’re a man, but that’s the pledge I took, and that’s the one I’v kept. Gibson seems to be just lost right now, which happens to so many guys when they cheat and leave. Their second and third marriages have an even higher rate of failure than their first.
It’s too bad; he was talented.
I don’t favor polygamous societies. But I do see that through history the goal of many powerful men is to spread their genes. I once read that 10% of Mongolians have Genghis Khan ancestry. By having seven children with Robin, Mel Gibson is telling you something. He got into a mess with the Russian tramp but that’s what he was doing if even subconsciously. If you think he was after her just for romance and sex you are wrong. It was to make more mini-Mels. Mel is a great guy and not some kind of degenerate spreading his seed anywhere. He wanted more children just as other men have down through history. You cannot repeal biology. You can try and channel it into monogamy and this is part of the goal of Judaism and Christianity. Though the bible is full of prophets with multiple wives, concubines and sexual liaisons. In fact there is a ton of genealogy in the Old Testament
Somehow that movie slipped right past me. Never even heard of it. I'll have to see if DirecTV is showing it or rent a copy.
It's worth a little bit of effort tracking down...it's based on Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead"
Sounds interesting. I’m always up for a good warrior/adventure movie.
It didn’t get a lot of critical acclaim, but I thought it was a pretty cool flick. If you find it, let me know what you think!
Sappy is honored to beat puppies with kittens! I bet!
you catch on, quickly!
Pal, you’re fantasizing about Mel’s reasons for doing what he did, plain and simple. You have NO evidence that he was biologically compelled to spread “his seed” and make more babies - it’s your imagination. (You seem to be enjoying your fantasies, too.) Certainly, if what he was looking for was more babies, he was foolish to pick a 39-year-old woman. She’s past her prime fecundity - she’s lucky their child wasn’t born with Down Syndrome at her age.
The Old Testament may be full of Sarahs and Hagars, but there isn’t any of that in the New Testament. Maybe “biology” makes men want to fornicate with as many women as possible, but that’s nowhere absolved in Christianity.
That Genghis Khan legacy is nothing to be proud of, either. Khan and his sons used rape and concubinage as a form of oppression of the peoples they conquered. The men of conquered nations were slaughtered, and their women raped. It had nothing to do with some need for virility, and everything to do with subjugation and destruction. It certainly makes a lousy explanation for Gibson’s behavior.
Wonder what skeletons are in this empty skull actor's closet. Being a dude + looking pretty + speaking someone else's words is no way to go through life... but Leo has mastered it.
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