Mel Gibson’s handler pumped the brakes on an interview after Fox News host Jesse Watters asked the actor for his thoughts on Will Smith’s smack at last Sunday’s Oscars.
Gibson shook his head, indicating he wasn’t going to offer an opinion on that scenario when a woman’s voice was heard off camera telling Watters the interview was over.
“Thank you, Jesse,” she said. “That is our time.”
Gibson is no stranger to controversy. During a Malibu DUI arrest in 2006, the Oscar winner unleashed an anti-Semitic rant.
The arrest report read in part: “Gibson blurted out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks about ‘f—ing Jews.’ Gibson yelled out: ‘The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.’ Gibson then asked: ‘Are you a Jew?’”
“We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends, and Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar, and we’re all talking and he said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’” Ryder said. “And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’”
Gibson denied the interaction with Ryder through his rep, saying, “This is 100% untrue. She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now.”
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In a 2016 interview with Variety’s Playback podcast, Gibson spoke about his 2006 DUI arrest.
“It was an unfortunate incident,” Gibson said. “I was loaded and angry and arrested. I was recorded illegally by an unscrupulous police officer who was never prosecuted for that crime. And then it was made public by him for profit, and by members of — we’ll call it the press. So, not fair. I guess as who I am, I’m not allowed to have a nervous breakdown, ever.”
