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Mel culpa: Gibson sorry after tirade [including "anti-Semitic remarks"]
The Age (AU) ^ | 31JUL06 | Gerard Wright

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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: antisemitic; catholic; driving; drunk; duplicate; gibson; mel; passion; play; search; seenit; speeding
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To: Hacksaw
He did apologize for his statements, however

He apologized for his statements to the police. He did not specifically apologize for his statements about Jews.

21 posted on 07/30/2006 5:31:33 PM PDT by sinkspur (Today, we settled all family business.)
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To: familyop
"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?'" Even Eric Cartman would not go that far.
22 posted on 07/30/2006 5:31:55 PM PDT by Panerai
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To: Longbow1969
This episode makes me think that perhaps there was something to the accusations that the film was anti-semetic afterall. Maybe I just didn't see it.

I saw the movie twice and the DVD annually since. It does not excuse the Sanhedrin and Herod's court, but did not look at all anti-Semitic to me.

The things Gibson apparently said are disgraceful.

Apparently. Gibson's pretty high-profile --there are LOTS of folks who'd like to take him down for the count-- and all we have (so far) is a written report claiming he said these things. Other posts on this thread go further into these issues, so I'll not say further.

23 posted on 07/30/2006 5:32:25 PM PDT by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† | Iran Azadi | Appeasement only reinforces bad behavior)
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To: Hacksaw

Hacksaw wrote:
"I wonder if his slurs while drunk had anything to do with the way Jewish leaders smeared him for making The Passion. That might have given him a huge resentment."

How far would you like to go with that? I'm not Jewish, and I believe that passion plays are as hideous as they ever were.

"Jewish History Sourcebook: Jews and the Later Roman Law 315-531 CE" http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-romanlaw.html
Quote:
"[Marcus Introduction] The Middle Ages, for the Jew at least, begin with the advent to power of Constantine the Great (306-337). He was the first Roman emperor to issue laws which radically limited the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire, a privilege conferred upon them by Caracalla in 212. As Christianity grew in power in the Roman Empire it influenced the emperors to limit further the civil and political rights of the Jews. Most of the imperial laws that deal with the Jews since the days of Constantine are found in the Latin Codex Theodosianius (438) and in the Latin and Greek code of Justinian (534). Both of these monumental works are therefore very important, for they enable us to trace the history of the progressive deterioration of Jewish rights."


THE MYSTERY
OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN HISTORY
By Rev. Frs. Michael Crowdy & Kenneth Novak
Originally printed in the April 1997 issue of The Angelus magaine.
http://www.sspx.org/against_the_sound_bites/mystery_of_the_jews.htm
(extremely antisemitic)

Thomas Aqinas' letter to Margaret of flanders
http://www.thomistica.net/margaret-of-flanders-online/

"Jerome: . . . This imprecation rests at the present day upon the Jews, the Lord's blood is not removed from them" (St Thomas Aquinas: Catena Aurea, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27.)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxvii.html

"Raban.: But as the guilt of His blood, which they imprecated upon themselves and their children, presses them down with a heavy weight of sin, so the purchase of the lie, by which they deny the truth of the Resurrection, charges this guilt upon them for ever; as it follows, 'And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day'" (St Thomas Aquinas : Catena Aurea, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 28.)
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxviii.html




Eusebius wrote, in his Ecclesiastical History (History of the Christian Church),
Book II, CHAPTER XVII of
Philo's Account of the Ascetics of Egypt

"But it is highly probable that the works of the ancients, which he says they [the Essenes] had, were the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some expositions of the ancient prophets, such as are contained in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in many others of Paul's Epistles."
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2501.htm




[See Book XVIII, Antiquities, and Book II, War of the Jews, behind the following link. "Pilate" is a good keyword to search the page, if you're in a hurry. ...best to read the whole thing, though.]
The Works of Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/josephus/josephus.htm


24 posted on 07/30/2006 5:32:51 PM PDT by familyop ("Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists." --President Bush)
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To: familyop

Mel going McKinney, what a shame...


25 posted on 07/30/2006 5:32:51 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Mel is going Bobby Fischer, more like. How long until he moves to Iceland?


26 posted on 07/30/2006 5:33:36 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: familyop
Come one, The Age?
I can't believe you posted this as news.
27 posted on 07/30/2006 5:34:33 PM PDT by Jean S
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To: sinkspur
He apologied. This from the NYT, today:

In a one-paragraph statement issued Saturday through his publicist, Alan Nierob, Mr. Gibson said: “I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone I may have offended.”

28 posted on 07/30/2006 5:35:23 PM PDT by vox_freedom
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To: Hacksaw; veronica
I wonder if his slurs while drunk had anything to do with the way Jewish leaders smeared him for making The Passion. That might have given him a huge resentment.

Oh, so the JEWS drove him drink???!!!!??? UN..FREAKIN..BELIEVABLE...Is there anything that we don't have the power to do.

29 posted on 07/30/2006 5:36:17 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: GinaLolaB
"I think he was upset because of the wars in Lebanon/Iraq. Prayers for him."

So let's give him a pass on being a bigot, he made a nice Christian movie. /sarc

30 posted on 07/30/2006 5:36:36 PM PDT by Panerai
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To: vox_freedom
Where did he apologize directly to Jewish people for his statements?

Others with less baggage might get away with the statement drawn up by his PR flack. Not Gibson.

31 posted on 07/30/2006 5:37:14 PM PDT by sinkspur (Today, we settled all family business.)
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To: livius

I think those attacks on him from the Passion are what drove him off the wagon. The guy literally looked like he aged 20 years from when he first started making that movie till he finished. And you know, if Hollywood wants to criticize him for being anti-semitic, maybe they should look in the mirror first. They blame Israel for everything under the sun yet totally ignore terrorism and terror states. Israel can do no good in the eyes of Hollywood, but psychos who blow themselves up in buses are ignored. You can`t get anymore anti-semitic than that.


32 posted on 07/30/2006 5:37:21 PM PDT by Screamname (Batman and Godzilla : When will they fight?)
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To: JeanS

...often better than the ABC (AU).


33 posted on 07/30/2006 5:38:17 PM PDT by familyop ("Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists." --President Bush)
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To: fatima

So sorry to hear that, I know how awful alcoholics can be when they are trying, but fail to stay sober.


34 posted on 07/30/2006 5:38:22 PM PDT by irish guard
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To: sinkspur

Maybe he is waiting for Abe Foxman any other Jewish leaders to apologize for their constant attacks against his movie.


35 posted on 07/30/2006 5:39:35 PM PDT by xxyyxx
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To: Panerai
So let's give him a pass on being a bigot, he made a nice Christian movie. /sarc

I just think he spouted off his big mouth because he was emotionally upset about the war. The war is very upsetting to many people.

I don't know why some people still drink and drive. It is such a big mistake.

36 posted on 07/30/2006 5:40:59 PM PDT by GinaLolaB
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To: familyop
Ping..."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?'"

In the past I made the mistake of defending him from association with his despicable Jew hating, America hating father. I'm sorry to say it's a mistake, as Mel noted he learned his "faith", at his papas knee, apparently to his discredit.

37 posted on 07/30/2006 5:42:52 PM PDT by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn't do!)
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To: familyop

Somebody needs to thwack Mel Gibson with a Romans 11 stick.

A BIG one.

I'm very sad and disappointed to hear such utter bile from him. Jewish leaders spount nonsense regarding "Passion," and this kind of garbage feeds into paranoia and gives it a hand-hold.

He's still got more to apologize for.


38 posted on 07/30/2006 5:42:55 PM PDT by Kieri (A Grafted Branch)
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To: Screamname
I think those attacks on him from the Passion are what drove him off the wagon. The guy literally looked like he aged 20 years from when he first started making that movie till he finished.

Oh, please!

Gibson's worth a half-billion dollars thanks to The Passion and the support it got from Christians all over the world.

The criticisms of a few Jews are going to drive him over the edge so that he's drinking out of a brown paper bag like a skid-row bum and blaming them for all the ills in the world?

39 posted on 07/30/2006 5:44:08 PM PDT by sinkspur (Today, we settled all family business.)
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To: Screamname

I think there's definitely something strange going on in his life. He's certainly full of anger, although part of it is probably what another poster referred to as "celebrityitis," the "do you KNOW who I AM" syndrome. Maybe this will be his moment of truth and he will really confront these things.

Even if he is angry over unjustified attacks, he's got to confront this and forgive and ask forgiveness if he wants to get his life back on keel. Going around with all that anger inside can't be any fun.


40 posted on 07/30/2006 5:44:22 PM PDT by livius
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