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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mel Gibson, who's being sued by a writer over payment for the "The Passion of the Christ" screenplay, wants to keep financial information about the blockbuster movie out of the public eye. Benedict Fitzgerald claimed in his February lawsuit that Gibson misled him into accepting a small payment for writing the script by saying the movie would cost between $4 million and $7 million. Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to "a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film," which the...

Mel Gibson has called Heath Ledger's death this week a "tragic loss." But in recent years, Gibson had distanced himself from the risk-taking actor, it's been claimed. Gibson turned cold toward Ledger after the Aussie star ignored his advice not to play a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," according to private investigator Paul Barresi. Ledger and Gibson had grown close while filming "The Patriot," in which Ledger played Gibson's son. "Ledger asked Gibson whether he should take the role of Ennis Del Mar in 'Brokeback,'" Barresi says a "major Hollywood producer" told him. "Gibson strongly counseled against it. The role...

ROME — Italian film and opera legend Franco Zeffirelli has agreed to become an image consultant to Pope Benedict XVI, the director said in an interview published Saturday. The pope does not have a "happy image," Zeffirelli told La Stampa, adding: "Coming after a pope as telegenic as John Paul II is a difficult task." Benedict, elected in 2005, "comes across coldly, which isn't suited to his surroundings," Zeffirelli said, adding that the pope's wardrobe "should be reviewed." The pope's robes are "too sumptuous and flashy," the 84-year-old director of "Jesus of Nazareth" and "Romeo and Juliet" told the daily...

MEL Gibson has poured a further $10 million into his controversial sect in the Malibu hills as he oversees construction of a 400-seat church to expand his flock. A federal tax filing reveals that the troubled actor-director made the large lump sum donation earlier this year to his Holy Family Catholic Church, which is situated in the secluded Agoura Hills. The private church now has $37 million in its coffers - up from $27 million last year, according to the tax document. Gibson's secretive sect is not recognised by the Roman Catholic Church because it does not acknowledge the authority...

An attempt by actor and director Mel Gibson to establish a church that would celebrate the Mass in Latin and attract similar believers outside mainstream Catholicism apparently has failed. St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Unity will be sold after Saturday's ouster of its priest, a former clergyman of the Greensburg Catholic Diocese, parish members said. Karen Petrone, her husband, Glenn, of Wilkinsburg in Allegheny County, and their nine children attended Mass at St. Michael's until April. They said they stopped because of questions about the credentials of Leonard Bealko, who celebrated Mass each Sunday, officiated at weddings...

Venezuela's Congress says it has approved financing for two films by actor Danny Glover, a close supporter of President Hugo Chavez. The lawmaking body, which is closely allied with Chavez, said in a statement on its Web site Thursday that it approved $20 million for two Glover productions. They include "The General in His Labyrinth," which deals with the life of South American liberator Simon Bolivar. It is based on a novel by Colombian Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and will be directed by Venezuela-born director Alberto Arvelo. The other is "Toussaint," which the statement said Glover plans to...

The breakaway British region of Scotland could be among the beneficiaries of this week's expected UN recommendation that Kosovo be granted provisional independence from Serbia, leading in time to full sovereign status. If the plan backed by the US, Britain and Germany is formally accepted by the UN security council, it will be taken as an important international legal precedent by would-be separatist movements from Georgia to Moldova to Chechnya, and possibly also the Scottish National party. ... Kosovo has been part of Serbia since the Middle Ages. By comparison, the Act of Union binding Scotland and England dates back...

From a makeshift pulpit inside an Indiana Quality Inn, a baby-faced priest angrily denounces the Jews, saying they mean to "destroy all Christian nations." In offices in State Line, Pa., an intense, bespectacled man tirelessly recounts how the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia "predicts the anti-Christ will come from Jewry" and warns of the Jews' role in the coming "New World Order." At a gathering near the Philadelphia airport, men in priests' collars and brown monk's robes rage against the "Judeo-Masonic" conspiracy to destroy the Catholic Church, the "Marxist-Jewish" scheme to wreck American schools, and even an elaborate 9/11 plot, "predicted by...

MEL Gibson says he is thankful for the experience, which has followed his drunken, anti-Semitic ramble to police officers who charged him with drink driving last year. "It's like God tapping you on the shoulder and saying, `Hey Bud – pull up for a second and sit still. Who are you? What are you doing?' That's all, and that's a gift," the actor turned filmmaker told the Nine Network's A Current Affair. In the first part of an interview to be completed on tomorrow's Today show, the Australian-raised Oscar-winning actor told Richard Wilkins he had put the July 28 incident...

Mel Gibson to play Polish King?! Reports have emerged that Mel 'Madmax' Gibson has been approached to play King Jan Sobieski in an epic movie about the 1683 Siege of Vienna. Wroclaw-based producer Mariusz Bielak would like Gibson to both star in and direct the picture, and he is optimistic that the Australian maverick will come on board: 'All the signs show that he is interested in this project and its theme', Bielak was quoted as saying in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. "It's his cup of tea.' The film, which has a working title of Victoria (The Victory), is being...

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (MNA) -- Mel Gibson’s blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) will be screened at the Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum tomorrow. Depicting the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus (AS), the controversial film will be reviewed by Iranian critics Hiva Masih and Reza Dorostkar in a session open to the public after the screening. The program will be held on the sidelines of the exhibition of the World Award of Monotheistic Religions -- First International Poster Competition, which is currently underway at the museum.

In an explosive telephone argument that led to her firing, publisher Judith Regan allegedly complained of a "Jewish cabal" against her in the book industry and stated that "Of all people, Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie." A spokesman for Regan's former employer, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., told The Associated Press on Monday that the remarks were based on notes taken by HarperCollins attorney Mark Jackson, with whom Regan was discussing the future of a controversial new novel about baseball star Mickey Mantle. The spokesman, Andrew Butcher, released the comments in response...

Recently someone asked me what sort of people "qualified" as "white trash" given what passes for conventional wisdom in America. My response included such things as lower-income, undereducated whites with a preference for colloquial speech and occasionally, a proclivity toward racking up misdemeanor offenses. A healthy dose of low self-esteem generally helps, too. Indeed, as may seem obvious, it's much more about attitude and mindset than ethnic or genotypic qualities. In as much as the above gives rise to subcultural niches, I don't have any problem admitting that I occasionally use the "n-word." That we've come to a point where...

Just saw Mel Gibson's Apocalypto an hour ago and I have two or three historical questions pertaining to the film that I am still not clear on. 1. Who was it that is approaching the shoreline at the end of the film? They appear to be Vikings of some sort...was this the start of a colony there? 2. Why did the 2 evil warriors stop at the shore and walk towards them and not kill him? Were they stunned by the ships and the fact that the men looked that different and were white? 3. Was any of this based...

Brutally Honest The multicultural set doesn't like Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" because of its depiction of Mayan brutality. MEL GIBSON'S Apocalypto is one of the few films that can rightly be described as a journey. The viewer is snatched from the confines (and comforts) of a Hollywood movie and thrown deep into the jungles of Central America. The film itself is a visual masterpiece; shot entirely in a Mayan dialect, Gibson flexes his visual muscles to show rather than tell. Billed as a historical drama, Apocalypto is actually part revenge flick and part chase flick. After being brutally taken from his...

According to Mel Gibson, his new movie, "Apocalypto," is a metaphor for the death of American civilization. "The precursors to a civilization that's going under are the same, time and time again," Gibson explained at a film festival in Texas. "What's human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" Gibson's comparison between Mayan and American civilization is deeply offensive. To elucidate just how offensive the comparison is, I must review the film's portrayal of Mayan society. (Warning: There are spoilers. If you are intent on seeing this movie, read no further.) "Apocalypto" portrays two societies within...

Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” is an audacious, unforgettable triumph and, undoubtedly, one of the richest, most electrifying cinematic experiences of the year. In that context it’s unfortunate that the filmmaker has coupled his brilliance as a writer-director with a display of unalloyed idiocy as a commentator on his own work. The stupidity began in September when he spoke to an audience in Austin, Texas after an early screening of his still unfinished film. At the time, he succeeded in getting advance attention for his work by drawing parallels between the fantastically brutal and dysfunctional Mayan civilization he portrays on screen and...

Sorry, but this is too funny. And after Gibsons bashing of Bush he deserves it.

First off let me state I haven't yet seen Apocalypto, but knowing what I know of Mr. Gibson's sensibilities, I expect it to be a rather rude departure from political correctness regarding non-western culture. And, being a cultured western male, I applaud this. The insinuations are prime to survival and subject for honest debate in the current situation in the ME and more specifically Iraq and Lebanon. I thought about all of this while listening to Cookie and Zachie and the inestimable Mr. George Will debate the ways and means of surrender in Iraq on This Week with George Stephanopoulos....

Mel Gibson: $8M More to Private ChurchYou may recall Gibson telling the officer who arrested him that he “owned half of Malibu.”  Well, not quite. But as I reported in this space last February, following up on a New York Times report by Christopher Noxon, Gibson has been building a religious retreat in Malibu for some time.  Holy Family is a Catholic church that isn’t recognized by any archdiocese.   Instead, it follows beliefs counter to the 1965 Vatican II Conference, which among other things, absolved Jews of Christ’s death. Instead, Holy Family Catholic Church adheres to 16th century Catholic values.Click...

Call it a Hollywood shocker: Mel's Apocalypto will have a bigger weekend opening than his Braveheart. Despite scandal, an R-rating, subtitles because of an ancient dialect, no stars, and direct competition from movieland AAA-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, Gibson's Mayan epic won Friday's matinees and evenings, I'm told. At first, box office gurus were warning me that the weekend victor among three very competitive films all opening against each other would be too close to call. cameron_jude.jpgBut now I've learned it looks certain that Apocalypto will win the weekend -- bearing out my reporting back on December 1st when...

Some descendants of the Maya tribes depicted in Mel Gibson's Apocalypto have denounced the movie as racist and not representative of their ancient culture. In an interview with Reuters, Ignacio Ochoa, director of the Nahual Foundation, said, "Gibson replays, in glorious big budget Technicolor, an offensive and racist notion that Maya people were brutal to one another long before the arrival of Europeans and thus they deserved, in fact, needed, rescue." Lucio Yaxon, described by Reuters as a 23-year-old Mayan human rights activist, added, "Basically, the director is saying the Mayans are savages." Today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Times noted that...

Release Date: December 8, 2006 Ever since Mel Gibson directed the amazingly successful “The Passion of the Christ,” he has been dogged by questions of whether that film is anti-Semitic in its portrait of Jewish complicity in the death of Christ. He also has been accused of reveling in cinematic violence – an action-movie star who chooses violent roles in front of the camera and violent stories to film as a director. Gibson’s recent outburst after being arrested for drunken driving revealed an ugly streak that emboldened those who believe him to be an anti-Semite. Now, with “Apocalypto,” the filmmaker...

Let's get right to the point, shall we? About halfway through Mel Gibson's movie "Apocalypto," which opens this week, viewers are treated to a stomach-turning scene of human sacrifice, set in a Mayan city around 1500. It's not revealing too much to say that the movie's hero is captured by a gang of marauders, bound, marched through the jungle, painted blue, and forced to the top of a pyramid where heads roll. In a smaller version of the outrage and skepticism that preceded the opening of "The Passion of the Christ"—is it historically accurate? is it anti-Semitic?—scholars who study the...

'Apocalypto' Is More 'Mad Max' Than Mayan With the subtlety of several thousand flying mallets and arrows, here comes Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," a two hour plus torture-fest so violent that women and children will be headed to the doors faster than you can say "duck" when the film opens on Dec. 8th. Indeed, 'Apocalypto' is the most violent movie Disney has ever released, with so much blood spurting out of orifices that even Martin Scorsese would blush. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see heads and hearts removed without anesthesia, then this is the movie for...

Starring Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer, Morris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Baez. Written by Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia. Directed by Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson's new movie is a dubiously cautionary historical spectacle that gushes along on torrents of blood. A speculative fable on the fall of Mayan civilization with its eye allegedly cocked toward present geopolitical troubles, Apocalypto will strike some as a comment on the imminent collapse of global society as we know it, and others as a sign that it's already a done deal — surely, this is exactly the kind of gory amusement that jazzed the...

Mel Gibson is sicker than we thought. As his new film "Apocalypto" makes clear, he's not just a drinker and a raving anti-Semite, but a man with a grotesque appetite for human suffering and an enormous talent for exploiting it. There was great violence in "Braveheart," too, but it was cloaked in historical context. And the stripping of Jesus' flesh in "The Passion of the Christ" had the cover of Scripture. But "Apocalypto" exists solely as an action-adventure and a deft cinematic demonstration of man's capacity for cruelty. This is the true passion of Mel. If you can take unflinching...

LOS ANGELES Mel Gibson calls his anti-Semitic rant following his arrest for drunk driving in July "the stupid ramblings of a drunkard." In an interview with Diane Sawyer set to air on "Good Morning America" on Thursday and Friday, Gibson says while staying sober is a struggle, he has not had a drink in 65 days. He adds that he plans to continue making movies and working to heal himself and those he offended. In a partial transcript of the interview released by A-B-C, Gibson says "All you can do is take another step, keep breathing." The interview with Sawyer...

LOS ANGELES - Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot. In this photo released by CBS, comedian Jerry Seinfeld talks with host David Letterman during tapping of the "Late Show with David Letterman," on Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 in New York. Also during the show, Seinfeld's former co-star Michael Richards appeared via satellite from California and attempted to explain a weekend stand-up comedy routine where he repeatedly used racial epithets in an apparent rageful response to hecklers, a video of...

Oh, how the hot and powerful have turned cold and weak -- at least that's the assessment of Mel Gibson by FilmThreat online. The site has named Gibson No. 1 among the "least-powerful, least-inspiring, least-intriguing people in all of Tinseltown." The dishonor comes, of course, because of the anti-Semitic remarks he made during his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. The site said "who cares" to his upcoming movie, "Apocalypto." Also on the Film Threat's "Frigid 50: The Coldest People in Hollywood" is Borat, because the site says there's no future for him, actress Lindsay Lohan and the Internet phenomenon...

We all know about actor Michael Richards' racial epithets at last Friday night's performance at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. But yesterday, this exclusive TMZ.com article revealed that the three-time Emmy-award-winning actor had also hurled anti-Semitic slurs at the Improv comedy club in April of this year. According to the piece, Richards yelled at an audience member, "You f***ing Jew. You people are the cause of Jesus dying." And here's the kicker: Richards' own representative has confirmed that this actually happened.So how did the Los Angeles Times cover this latest revelation in today's paper (Thursday, November 23, 2006)? They...

Hollywood — Mel Gibson is demanding that Michael Richards be blacklisted in Hollywood after the former “Seinfeld” actor unleashed a string of racial epithets during a stand-up routine. “As celebrities, we have to be particularly careful with our words,” said Gibson. “He should have his Jew lawyer issue an apology ASAP.” The 57-year-old actor-comedian, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld’s eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit TV show “Seinfeld,” was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Friday night when he went into the verbal rampage. Richards, responding to heckling from two black members of the audience, unleashed...

Drunken celebrity accuses detective of being a "Jew Cop." That sounds familiar alright - only on Law & Order. Ripped from the headlines!

Never before had I made an intercontinental flight to see a movie. But that's what I did this month when I accepted Mel Gibson's invitation to preview and critique his new film “Apocalypto,” scheduled to appear in theaters on December 8th. I didn't make the trek across the ocean for entertainment value. My work as a consultant on and off the set of Gibson's “Passion of the Christ,” gave me a new appreciation of the power of well-made, serious, and widely-distributed movies. They influence culture. They affect the way we think about the story they tell. Sometimes they warp our...

Deputy James Mee, the arresting officer in the now famous Mel Gibson DUI case, is the subject of an investigation. The investigation involves the possible leaking to the media of confidential information relating to the pending (at the time) investigation of Gibson. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has confirmed to the entertainment reporting network TMZ, that a search warrant was obtained for a raid of Deputy Mee's residence. The search took place on Sept. 13, and Mee's computer, phone records, and other documents were seized. Evidently, the Sheriff's Department conducted the search because of a belief that Deputy Mee...

Hollywood superstar tells Good Morning America last summer’s anti-Semitic outburst grew out of his concerns over violence raging between Israel, Hizbullah Actor Mel Gibson says his drunken, anti-Semitic outburst at police this past summer may have stemmed in part from lingering resentment he harbored over the barrage of Jewish criticism leveled at his 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.” In an interview aired Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Gibson also suggested that his statement to police that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” grew out of his concerns over the violence raging between Israel...

Jewish comedienne Joan Rivers has launched a scathing attack on Mel Gibson, insisting the actor should "die" for the anti-Semitic comments he made to police officers who arrested him for drink driving in July. The outspoken comic urges people to boycott Gibson's TV interviews with newswoman Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, because the exposure will only help to heal the actor/director's tarnished public image. She tells Celebrity Week: "He is an anti-Semitic son of a bitch. He should f**king die. "I think everyone should not watch the interview with Diane Sawyer. The hypocrisy is what I hate. You know...

Just curious when Diane Sawyer is going to grill former Democrat Presidential candidates Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson like this on their anti-semitic comments, which I might add seem to come out almost on a yearly basis. Or Hillary Clinton.. Oh wait, excuse me, Hillary moved on to calling Ghandi a gas station attendant, that doesn`t count. Or how about Leonard Jeffries or Louis Farrakhan or the latest U.N. toast of the town, Iraninan President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The last time I seen grilling like was with the 911 commission when they decided to call NYC firefighters "Boy scouts".

Mel Gibson By Mark Judge So now Mel Gibson is trashing the war effort. As reported on the Today show, New York Times and everywhere, he has called the death of American troops in Iraq “human sacrafice.” I have no idea how many folks politicalmavens.com reaches, so this could be a cry in the wilderness, but: folks, this is not a story. There is a certain segment of the conservative Catholic right that is strongly anti-war. Check out the magazine New Oxford Review (linked at the bottom). Like Mel, the NOR has been accused of anti-Semitism. They are more hysterical...

Sometimes it feels like we're always in a race with time. We're always in a hurry to get things done or racing to get somewhere fast or just trying to meet somebody else's deadline. Being in a hurry is part of our nature. Impatience to fulfill our most basic needs is imbued in our creation. A baby cries forcefully demanding its milk while a fully-grown corporate executive pounds his fist on the table demanding work be done. We're always racing but we never seem to catch up. Now, superstar Mel Gibson is telling us to relax and enjoy the ride...

THE sheriff's deputy who arrested actor Mel Gibson for drunken driving has had his home searched by fellow officers investigating how a police account of the actor's anti-Semitic tirade was made public, it was reported today. Acting on a search warrant obtained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, investigators raided the home of Deputy James Mee on September 13 and seized his computer, telephone records and other documents, according to the celebrity web site TMZ.com. TMZ, citing unnamed department sources for its report, said the search warrant remains under seal and the outcome of the search has not been...

TMZ has learned the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has gone after the deputy who arrested Mel Gibson with a vengeance. At the same time, it appears little has been done to determine if top brass gave Gibson special treatment and deceived the media. Sheriff's sources confirm to TMZ that the Department obtained a search warrant and raided the home of Deputy James Mee on September 13th. We're told deputies went inside and took Mee's computer, phone records and other documents. Sheriff's Department sources say the Department got the warrant because officials believed Deputy Mee leaked four pages of the...

I have posted on my blog this morning a video of a Palestinian Imam preaching a sermon - followed by an excerpt from a recent column on "The New Anti-Semitism" by Victor Davis Hanson and some of my comments. It helps to explain the actions by Reuters and the AP during the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and some other questionable incidents.

NEW YORK (September 26, 2006) - Chevy Chase has done a lot of impressions over the years, but now he'll channel Mel Gibson in an upcoming episode of "Law & Order." Chase will guest star as a celebrity who is pulled over for drunk driving while wearing blood-soaked clothes, and whose religious prejudice comes out after his arrest. The idea for the "ripped from the headlines" episode appears to be loosely based upon Gibson's DUI arrest in July. Chase began filming his scenes this week, NBC announced. The episode (titled "In Vino Veritas") is slated to air on Friday, November...

While Mel Gibson secretly roams the United States testing reaction to his latest movie, "Apocalypto," one of television's longest running shows has decided to incorporate his recent legal troubles into an episode. Staying true to its "ripped from the headlines" style, "Law & Order," says it will air an episode on November 3 starring comedian Chevy Chase as a celebrity who is pulled over for drunk driving and then delivers an anti-Semitic rant at the arresting officers. But "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf said that while a viewer could draw comparisons to Gibson's anti-Semitic comments after being arrested for...

Mel Gibson's standing ovation Monday, 25th September 2006, 12:23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Mel Gibson received a standing ovation at a preview for his new movie, 'Apocalypto'. The actor-director - who has kkept a low profile since making anti-Semitic comments and being charged with drink-driving - made a surprise appearance at a screening of the Mayan adventure film at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on Friday (22.09.06). Addressing the crowd, Mel drew parallels between the movie's subject matter and today's world saying: "The precursors to a civilization that's going under are the same, time and time again. "What's...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mel Gibson has returned to the spotlight to promote his upcoming movie "Apocalypto," and to criticize the war in Iraq, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Almost two months after he railed against Jews when he was arrested for driving drunk in Malibu, the actor made a surprise appearance Friday at Fantastic Fest, an event in Austin, Texas, devoted to new science fiction, horror and fantasy films, the trade paper said in its Monday edition. He presented a work-in-progress screening of his Mayan adventure tale, and then took questions. About one-third of the full house gathered for...

Actor and director Mel Gibson visited two Oklahoma towns this week to attend screenings of his new movie, "Apocalypto." Gibson did not make a public appearance during screenings held at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby and Cameron University in Lawton. At the entrance of the casino — where the film was shown Friday to a mostly American Indian audience — reporters were kept behind partitions. He arrived at Cameron on Thursday morning wearing a mask and wig so he wouldn't be noticed, university spokeswoman Amber McNeil said. Jhane Myers, an Oklahoma City-based publicist who escorted Gibson, issued a statement saying...

LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson's only daughter, Hannah, married blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd this weekend. Gibson, 26, and Shepherd, 29, of Benton, La., exchanged vows in California on Saturday, People magazine reported on its Web site. Shepherd's albums include "Ledbetter Heights" and "Live On." He proposed to Gibson on New Year's Eve 2004 in Rome, according to The Times of Shreveport, La. Gibson, 50, and his wife, Robyn, have seven children. Hannah is their oldest child and only daughter. The wedding came almost two months after Gibson, 50, star of the "Lethal Weapon" movies and director of "The Passion...

Another movie coming up from famous director Peter Jackson who announced that he’s gathering a team for a “Dam Busters” remake. As a child, Peter Jackson said he was a real fan of the 1954 version of “Dam Busters”, a movie based on the book with the same name written by Paul Brickhill, which revolved around inventor Barnes Wallis and mission commander Guy Gibson. He was 12 when he watched the movie for the first time. “I always thought that out of all the World War II true stories this is one of the most extraordinary," Jackson, a longtime aviation...