EITB24 photo
LA Times photo
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.
.12 affects alchohics different than non-alchoholics. If someone has been an alcoholic for a long time - over 20 years, I believe it takes less alcohol to get to the out-of-control stage. Such is the case with a friend of mine. It's utterly heartbreaking to see how the mighty can be laid so low by alcohol, esp. if other mental health issues are involved. I'm not a medical professional so my observations are subjective.
FWIW, I've heard the exact same phrases from my friend. -he (Mel) "owned" Malibu; he would "get even" with him. "I'm going to f--- you," "You're going to regret you ever did this to me."
The hell of it is, is that when sober, a truly remarkable human being shines thru. Unfortunately, the clouds keep returning.
well said ..........
But maybe Abe Foxman was dead wrong about the movie. I don't care for Foxman myself.
You seem to know little of the long term effects of chronic alcoholism. Gibson is a 50 year old chronic alcoholic by his own admission.
Alcoholism has a nice little bell curve of first increased tolerance where it requires more than the average amount of alcohol to achieve the same effect and then in later stages reversed tolerance where very little alcohol creates a raging drug due to changes in the brain as well as decreased ability of the liver to metabolize it.
It's nasty and ugly. IMO, Mel's outburst indicates he is a very sick alcoholic in crisis. Who knows how long he's been off the wagon this time?
Unfortunately, I do know about alcoholism. My brother, who successfully completed rehab and is a recovering alcoholic, is currently living in my basement. Not to mention my father and grandfather, etc.
Maybe some alcoholics rant and rave about beliefs or feelings that they never before entertained, but that hasn't been my experience.
If Mel said those things, he's thought them before. IMO.
"You say outrageous things that you don't mean and often don't remember."
Maybe he didn't MEAN them, but I don't think they are alien thoughts to him. Again, IMO.
Given that his father is a looney holocaust denier, it's pretty obvious that Gibson was raised on anti-semitic ideas.
Doesn't mean he believes or means them when he's sober. I think he's got a lot of garbage in his brain's basement that percolates up when his alcoholism is raging.
I respect the fact that your opinion is every bit as valid as mine. We can't ever really know another persons heart. I'm not sure I even have my own figured out!
Makes me even more grateful that I had amazing parents who were very careful to teach me not to be racist from the time I was small. It's apparent that kids pick up the prejudice of the parents like a sponge.
Here's a link to a copy of the original police report (as it was before parts were edited out by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department--photocopy of handwritten document). TMZ.com is owned by CNN parent company Time Warner, so it's no little stuff.
http://cdn.digitalcity.com/tmz_documents/gibson_wm_docs_072806.pdf
(PDF--adobe acrobat file)
That's proof enough of the deputy's original report and of a coverup, IMO. Here's the story it was linked from.
http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/28/gibsons-anti-semitic-tirade-alleged-cover-up/
We can pretty well see where all of this is going. Yes, it might be Mel's words, if he doesn't properly, specifically apologize, against those of the deputy in the end--biases on Mel's part, history of west coast public corruption, and all.
I will be surprised, if Mel properly apologizes to the Jewish people. Catherine Emmerich wasn't the kind of person who would have apologized, either.
Congratulations to you both. 15 years here.
That would not be possible.
20 posts before the "Kennedy got away with worse" equivalence post!
I think it's a new record.
What's distressing is so many willing to gloss over this because of the Passion movie.
Instead, you see a lot of whining about what liberals get away with. Childish arguments you shouldn't see from people over the age of 16.
Don't you love some of these arguments?
My favorite is still
"But Hillary gets to be a bigot! Not fair! Not fair!"
bttt
Not Fair! Not Fair! (foot stomp)
I don't remember her saying Jews were cause of all the wars in the world. So, not quite the same thing.
I suppose the double standard once again applies tho.
Certainly! Mel's still a great guy, but Hillary is a bigot!
Ohhhh. That's not the double standard you were talking about...
Is the ONLY way you'll believe that he said what he said, if he repeats it to you, live, in person, whispering it into your ear?
"I apologise for whatever you personally believe I might have said." MG
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