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No wonder Mel Gibson is giving the thumbs-up. Full time has been called on his 28-year marriage to Robyn Moore. The Pope didn't give the order, though. That edict came from Mel's 90-year-old father Hutton Gibson, and it paves the way for his son to marry his pregnant Russian girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva by Christmas. Having had his request turned down by Catholic bishops, Mel, 53, pleaded his case in front of a tribunal of members from the Church of the Holy Family, his breakaway Catholic church in Malibu. Hutton, who once studied for the priesthood only to leave before he...

A new report surfaces by the hour that Mel Gibson has attacked a fan during a night out partying at a club in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 28. Hollyscoop claims the actor was seen arriving at Playhouse to celebrate the venue's grand opening party with the companion of pregnant girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva and a group of people.

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster are giving it another shot. E! News can confirm that the Hollywood heavyweights, who last costarred in a movie together 15 years ago in Maverick, are set to join forces again for The Beaver. A quirky comedy drama along the lines of 2007's indie hit Lars and the Real Girl (or, depending on your humor, South Park), the Kyle Killen-penned script follows a down-and-out man (Gibson) who finds comfort wearing a beaver hand puppet. Foster will not only play his wife, but she'll also helm the film, marking her first...

Spiritually speaking, Mel Gibson is wading through murky waters these days. The 'Braveheart' actor-director, an outspoken cheerleader for the traditionalist Catholic movement who built his own church so he could worship, is expecting a child with his girlfriend despite still being married. Isn't there a Commandment about that? Gibson is in the midst of divorce proceedings with Robyn Moore, his wife of 29 years and mother to their seven kids. However, even mainstream Catholicism does not tolerate the kinds of dalliances the star has made, and the consequences for his relationship with 39-year-old Russian model Oksana Grigorieva are very real...

MEL GIBSON’s wife finally sued for divorce after hearing his Russian lover say she is pregnant. The Sun can reveal ROBYN, 53, ended their 28-year marriage after OKSANA GRIGORIEVA told pals she was expecting. She was also horrified to find the Braveheart star had moved the stunning 39-year-old and her son, 11, into one of his mansions in California. A source said: “Robyn put up with Mel for years but when she found out Oksana was telling friends she was expecting it was the last straw.

THREE cheers for feminism. With a desperate lack of anything worthwhile to aim their gunsights at, they turn on self-made billionaire Mel Gibson to support his estranged wife Robyn's demands for half his $US1 billion fortune. The problem with absurd demands like this, underwritten by feminist approval, is that the girls always want it both ways. For many years Robyn was prepared to remain at home as a loving wife. Retired as a dental nurse, supported by her husband. Now, after the marriage has soured, Gibson has to pay for the life she apparently "gave up" to run their home,...

Mel Gibson may soon be writing one of the biggest checks of his life — to his wife. With no indication that the estranged couple — who married 28 years ago — had a prenup, Robyn Gibson, 53, is legally entitled in their divorce to half of everything the actor-director-producer earned from their marriage in 1980 to the date of their legal separation: A fortune estimated at close to $1 billion.

<p>LOS ANGELES – Court records show Mel Gibson's wife has filed for divorce after 28 years of marriage.</p> <p>Robyn Gibson filed the petition in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences.</p> <p>The petition doesn't give any details about the split. Robyn Gibson is seeking jewelry and some other property, and has suggested joint custody for their 9-year-old son.</p>

LOS ANGELES – Court records show Mel Gibson's wife has filed for divorce after 28 years of marriage. Robyn Gibson filed the petition in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences. The petition doesn't give any details about the split. Robyn Gibson is seeking jewelry and some other property, and has suggested joint custody for their 9-year-old son. The records show the couple were married in June 1980. They issued a joint statement Monday, saying they have "always strived to maintain the privacy and integrity of our family and will continue to do so."

Five years after its release, what is the legacy of The Passion of the Christ? Mel Gibson’s blockbuster about the Crucifixion of Jesus was a culture-war touchstone when it opened on February 25, 2004. The Passion was in the right place at the right time: it opened in the midst of a divisive Presidential campaign and a heated debate about whether domestic and international forces—secularism at home and extremism abroad—would nullify Christianity as a potent force in the world. The Passion had a tremendous influence on that debate. It is undeniable that the film played a crucial role in George...

The Pope is preparing to cancel the excommunication of four traditionalist Catholic bishops including one who believes the Holocaust never happened and the gas chambers were a myth. Pope Benedict XVI has already signed the decree lifting the excommunication of the four bishops of the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X, according to well-sourced reports in the Italian press today. One of the bishops, Richard Williamson, an English former Anglican and graduate of Winchester and Cambridge, gave an interview to Swedish TV this week in which he said: “There were no gas chambers.” The Pope, whose own position is towards...

Hey Freepers! Just noticed that Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" is going to be on in just a few minutes: 2:30 pm East Coast on TNT. Care to join me?

Mel Gibson has parked another almost $10 million in his Holy Family Catholic Church up in Malibu, California. According to federal tax filings just made available online at guidestar.org, Mel now has a church with tax free assets of $42 million. That’s a lot of worth for a congregation of less than 100 people. Among the church’s assets: art work listed at almost $500,000. Gibson lists three major expenses for 2007 including an architect and landscaper to help him keep building in and around the church. He also paid a law firm $69,000 for its services. Holy Family is not...

Star Wars: Robert De Niro vs. Mel Gibson Thursday , September 11, 2008 By Roger Friedman Star Wars: Robert De Niro vs. Mel Gibson Everyone in the movie business is buzzing about Robert De Niro walking off the set of "Edge of Darkness.” De Niro was back in New York Wednesday night for the premiere of “Righteous Kill” with Al Pacino. But he left “Edge of Darkness” abruptly last week after shooting one scene. His co-star was supposed to be Mel Gibson. It was that actor’s return to the screen after his poisonous 2006 arrest in Malibu that included an...

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...