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New Film May Harm Gibson's Career [H'wood Bigs vow revenge]
NY Times ^ | 2/26/2004 | SHARON WAXMAN

Posted on 02/25/2004 3:29:59 PM PST by SauronOfMordor

New Film May Harm Gibson's Career

By SHARON WAXMAN

Published: February 26, 2004

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 — Mel Gibson's provocative new film, "The Passion of the Christ," is making some of Hollywood's most prominent executives uncomfortable in ways that may damage Mr. Gibson's career.

Hollywood is a close-knit world, and friendships and social contact are critical in the making of deals and the casting of movies. Many of Hollywood's most prominent figures are also Jewish. So with a furor arising around the film, along with Mr. Gibson's reluctance to distance himself from his father, who calls the Holocaust mostly fiction, it is no surprise that Hollywood — Jewish and non-Jewish — has been talking about little else, at least when it's not talking about the Oscars.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, the principals of DreamWorks, have privately expressed anger over the film, said an executive close to the two men.

The chairmen of two other major studios said they would avoid working with Mr. Gibson because of "The Passion of the Christ" and the star's remarks surrounding its release.

Neither of the chairmen would speak for attribution, but as one explained: "It doesn't matter what I say. It'll matter what I do. I will do something. I won't hire him. I won't support anything he's part of. Personally that's all I can do."

The chairman said he was angry not just because of what he had read about the film and its portrayal of Jews in relation to the death of Jesus, but because of Mr. Gibson's remarks defending his father, Hutton Gibson. Last week in a radio interview the elder Mr. Gibson repeated his contention that the Holocaust was "all — maybe not all fiction — but most of it is." Asked about his father's Holocaust denial in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC, the movie star told her to "leave it alone."

The other studio chairman, whose family fled European anti-Semitism before the Holocaust, was less emphatic but said, "I think I can live without him." But others said there would be no lasting backlash against Mel Gibson. "If the movie works, I don't think it will hurt him," said John Lesher, an agent with Endeavor. "People here will work with the anti-Christ if he'll put butts in seats." Mr. Lesher added, "He put his own money where his mouth is. He invested in himself."

As Mr. Lesher implied, Hollywood is also a place of businesspeople, and Mr. Gibson is a proven movie star, popular with audiences. There are few actors with that kind of bankability, no matter their personal views. Mr. Gibson is also a capable director. So some of the initial reactions to his film may fade over time.

Mr. Gibson not only directed and helped write the $30 million film, but he also paid for it, including production and marketing costs, out of his own pocket, which Hollywood has filled.

As an actor and successful director, from "Mad Max" (1979) through "Lethal Weapon" (1987) and its sequels to the Oscar-winning "Braveheart" (1995), Mr. Gibson has long been a Hollywood pet. But he has also been known as a prankster and a self-confessed abuser of various substances. Many in the relentlessly secular movie industry see his recent religious conversion — he practices a traditionalist version of Roman Catholicism — as another form of addiction.

Last Friday the media billionaire Haim Saban, former owner of the Fox Family Channel, sent a concerned e-mail message to friends about Mr. Gibson and his father.

The message forwarded an article by the journalist Mitch Albom calling on Mr. Gibson to repudiate his father's denial of the Holocaust. Mr. Saban sent the article to, among others, Roger Ailes, who heads Fox News; Norman Pattiz, who runs the Westwood One radio network; and Michael R. Milken, the securities felon turned philanthropist.

Amid the daily dealings of Hollywood, the film and the star have been fodder for unfavorable gossip. Dustin Hoffman has talked to friends about what he called Mr. Gibson's "strangeness" during the ABC interview. The producer Mike Medavoy said Mr. Gibson's religious zealotry made him feel uncomfortable. Mr. Hoffman is Jewish; Mr. Medavoy is the child of Holocaust survivors.

"One question is, `What propelled him to make the movie about the passion of Christ?' " Mr. Medavoy said. "It makes me a little squeamish. What makes me squeamish about religion in general is that people think they have the answer: `I think my God is the right God.' How do you argue against that?"




TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: censorship; christ; gibson; hollywood; mediabias; mel; passion
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To: It's me
Because the film is bad or because of the political make-up of the academy?

I heard reviews last night by religious skeptics that the film is a great piece of art regardless of it's content.
261 posted on 02/26/2004 5:56:35 AM PST by Weimdog
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To: Bobibutu
WAS THINKING JUST THIS MORNING AS I WAS MAKING BREAKFAST ABOUT THIS. I thought, if these "Jews" as it has been reported, in Hollyweird, think that the movie is wrong, they have the right to make the "Jewish version" of the film from their point of view, and let people decide. I have never personally held the Jews responsible. That is like me being blamed for slavery because I was born and raised in the south. I never owned slaves nor did anyone in my family at any time. But, of course, being white, a southern born male, I am now held responsible for the sins of people 150-175 years ago. But, of course, we all know that slavery was GWB's fault!!
262 posted on 02/26/2004 7:53:28 AM PST by RetiredArmy (We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American Way! Toby Keith)
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To: SauronOfMordor
Response to post 201: I heard this a.m. on the news that this movie made over $20 million yesterday! Anyone else hear numbers?
263 posted on 02/26/2004 7:54:51 AM PST by RetiredArmy (We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American Way! Toby Keith)
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To: TIGHTEN
You know what, Paul Harvey can say whatever he wants. I personally, specifically remember him telling the story over the AM dial. It was at least a year, maybe two years ago. I only remember two of his stories, one about Lucy Ball being chained as a child and that Mel Gibson story. No way in the world PH gave a different account (ie bar fight). I've never heard the story anywhere else, and it made me reflect at the time.

From WWW.Snopes.Com or the dirsct url:
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/noface.htm

Mel Gibson did direct and star in The Man Without a Face, a 1993 film about a man who became a recluse after his face was disfigured in an automobile accident, but the movie was based upon a novel by Isabelle Holland, not Mel Gibson's life.

Many of our readers have sworn to us they heard Paul Harvey recite this piece, exactly as reproduced above, on one of his broadcasts. He did offer a "Rest of the Story" segment about Mel Gibson on 24 June 2000, and it was a typically (for Paul Harvey) exaggerated version of the truth, but it didn't come close to the glurge reproduced here. What Paul Harvey said, verbatim, was this:

In all his years as a cop, Ollie Gerrick had never seen a beating case like the one before him. The boy's face was smashed in. His partner say he wouldn't survive. The ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital and when he came to, the doctors told him the rest of the story. He was in the hospital and then he remembered that night in the bar. It was late the next night that the young man remembered he had an important appointment. He realized it was tomorrow. He struggled to get out of bed but the nurse restrained him. The next morning, he got out of bed and looked in the mirror and he didn't recognize himself.

Nevertheless, he went on to the job interview. Despite the bar fight in October of 1977. He showed up for a role in a movie and the producers were looking for someone unknown who was really tough looking. He got the role they were casting for. They were looking for someone to play the rugged role of Mad Max and this Australian with the beaten up face went on to become one of our best modern-day actors. We know him as Mel Gibson, and now you know the rest of the story.

264 posted on 02/26/2004 8:51:41 AM PST by Ghengis
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To: RightWingAtheist
The next remake will be The Minister's Life Partner, starring Nathan Lane, Harvey Fierstein, and RuPaul as the angel.

LOL! Thanks for starting my day off with a grin. BTW, another old-Hollywood film with a religious theme was Going My Way for which Bing Crosby won an Oscar.

265 posted on 02/26/2004 9:39:10 AM PST by Wolfstar
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To: TxBec
I hear ya. The woman who played Mary deserves one as well. The point where she ran to him and remembered him as "her little boy" had me sobbing.

There wasn't a dry eye in the theater at that point. Her facial expressions and the absolute pain in her eyes when she was holding the dead body of her Son were over the top.

266 posted on 02/26/2004 10:06:34 AM PST by dansangel (*PROUD to be a knuckle-dragging, toothless, inbred, right-wing, Southern, gun-toting Neanderthal *)
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To: Terry Mross
After Mel Gibson puts about 200 million bucks in his pocket I doubt if he'll worry about working for Dreamworks.

He's on his way. Final $ numbers for Wednesday, per BoxOfficeMojo.com:

$26,556,573

Pretty good for a Wednesday. As a matter of fact, Mel's film grossed close to ten times more than the next four films put together on Wednesday
267 posted on 02/26/2004 2:41:04 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (No anchovies!)
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To: Criminal Number 18F
I first heard the truism that the world's governments had killed more of their people in the 20th Century than all the wars in human history from a Jewish group, oddly enough: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Looking at the world as a whole, in the 20th Century you were far more likely to be murdered by agents of your own government, than by a private criminal. A good reason to keep the 2nd Amendment strong

268 posted on 02/26/2004 2:47:58 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (No anchovies!)
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To: RetiredArmy
See #267
269 posted on 02/26/2004 2:51:58 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (No anchovies!)
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To: dansangel
believe it or not at one point he's actually going to get hit in the nuts. Genius...pure genius.

Dreamworks was going to do this movie and had Madona lined up to play Mary and Jim Kerry as Jesus; since he has already played God!! Please don't let Hollywhacked do any more Bible movies!!

Pray for W and The Passion of Christ

270 posted on 02/26/2004 2:59:29 PM PST by bray (Commrade Kerry handcuffed our intellegence agencies!)
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To: longtermmemmory
What happens if the public has the ability to choose between pc fare and NON-pc fare? Hollyweird is filling their depends.

Heck, about between stupid fare and non-stupid fare? I think in addition to being PC, Hollywood is having problems creating intelligent scripts. If they won't have Mel, what will they make next? "Gigli 2?"
271 posted on 02/26/2004 3:05:39 PM PST by Galactic Overlord-In-Chief (What does it say on the bottom of Coke bottles at DU? It says, "Open Other End.")
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To: Revolting cat!
"reviews of this particular "entertainment vehicle"

The purpose of this movie is not "entertainment."
272 posted on 02/26/2004 3:06:45 PM PST by proud American in Canada
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To: bray
Pray for W and The Passion of Christ

Every day, ((((bray))))

:-)

273 posted on 02/26/2004 3:33:40 PM PST by dansangel (*PROUD to be a knuckle-dragging, toothless, inbred, right-wing, Southern, gun-toting Neanderthal *)
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To: twntaipan
Memo to Geffen, et. al.: He doesn't need you.

You might add, "He doesn't want you, either!"

CA....

274 posted on 02/26/2004 3:40:17 PM PST by Chances Are (Whew! It seems I've once again found that silly grin!)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
I had forgotten that Immortal Beloved was an Icon film. I *loved* it, and was in tears a couple of times (esp. during the battle scene). The showpiece shot of young Ludwig floating in the pond with the reflection of the star-filled sky took my breath away. Unfortunately, the DVD doesn't have quite as much of an impact as on a movie screen... :-)
275 posted on 02/26/2004 5:17:38 PM PST by bootless (Never Forget)
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To: bray
I recall a mention during a thread about Bruce Almighty that the director (and screenwriter?) of that film is a very devout Christian. I have the link someplace that contains an interview with him, and it was pretty amazing. Apparently, the scenes where Jim Carrey, broken, hits his knees in the middle of the street and surrenders himself to God, made the leftists in Hollywood Verrrrrry uncomfortable.

I'll see if I can find it.
276 posted on 02/26/2004 5:59:43 PM PST by bootless (Never Forget)
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To: bootless; bray
I found it!

Here it is:

http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/bruce_almighty.htm
277 posted on 02/26/2004 9:08:02 PM PST by bootless (Never Forget)
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To: bootless
Yes, the scene at night floating under the stars with the music playing was mesmerizing. The movie and Gary Oldman's brilliant performance were completely ignored by Hollywood.
278 posted on 02/27/2004 12:41:36 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg (There are very few shades of gray.)
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To: nutmeg
find later bump
279 posted on 02/27/2004 8:40:42 AM PST by nutmeg (Why vote for Bush? Imagine Commander in Chief John F’in Kerry)
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