Sunday, July 30, 2006

But What Did He Say?

Notice here how the CNN version ignores the content of Gibson's remarks:-

Gibson apologizes for behavior
'I disgraced myself,' star says after 'horrific relapse' and arrest

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor and director Mel Gibson issued a statement on Saturday, apologizing to deputies for his "belligerent behavior" when he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Malibu the day before.

Gibson said that he has "battled the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse," according to the statement.

Gibson, 50, was pulled over Friday on the scenic Pacific Coast Highway after "deputies were alerted by their radar that his speed was above the posted limit," according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. (Watch how the arrest casts a different spotlight on Gibson -- 1:28)

When officers approached Gibson they smelled alcohol on his breath, and a Breathalyzer test showed that his blood-alcohol content was 0.12, the sheriff's department release said. The California legal limit is 0.08.

He was taken into custody and later posted $5,000 bond for his release, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

The police did not charge him with driving under the influence because it's the district attorney's duty to decide if the arrest merits charges.

In his statement, Gibson acknowledges that he had been drinking Thursday night and that "I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have. ... I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person."

"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," the statement said. "I am deeply ashamed of everything I said."


So, what did he say, you ask?

This is what he said:-

Lt. Steve Smith, in charge of the detective bureau for the Malibu/Lost Hills station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, confirmed to me just now that "the contents seem to be similar" between the official reports and the four pages posted by TMZ.com on the Internet
alleging Mel Gibson made anti-Semitic slurs -- "fucking Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" and asking the arresting deputy "Are you a Jew?" -- during his DUI arrest early Friday morning.

Smith denied TMZ.com's charge that the sheriff's department was involved in "a cover-up" of Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade. "TMZ has learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps," the website claims. But Smith told me emphatically, "There's no whitewash. I've seen the first report, and the supplemental report, and it looks to be the same thing as what's on the Internet. The contents that are on the Internet are covered in both those reports." That is the first official confirmation from the Sheriff's station that Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic rants are included in the official reports about his DUI arrest.

As soon as TMZ's Internet pages surfaced about Gibson's alleged anti-Semitic tirade, Hollywood's entertainment leaders began phoning one another asking if could possibly be true. (Already this morning, I personally spoke with several prominent players wanting to know more.) Now, with my confirmation from Lt. Smith that those pages are similar to the official Sheriff's reports, showbiz moguls are certain to be shocked and angry. Still, to be fair, whether any actor should be held responsible for what may have been allegedly under-the-influence ramblings is certainly debatable. But Gibson is a special case because his worldwide mega-hit The Passion of the Christ was criticized by some Jewish leaders as anti-Semitic, and Gibson's father, a local religious leader, has said that the Holocaust did not happen.

Hutton Gibson in statements has decried the Holocaust as "fiction" and claimed there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before. The younger Gibson, however, has repeatedly denied his movie was anti-Semitic. But the actor/director's views about his father's Holocaust denial have been under scrutiny. When asked by an interviewer in early 2004 whether the Holocaust happened, the actor/director responded that some of his best friends ''have numbers on their arms,'' then added: ''Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps.'' But in the same interview, Gibson said his father, Hutton Gibson, had ''never lied to me in his life,'' and Holocaust scholars have cited those and other statements as evidence that he has failed to disassociate himself clearly from his father's views.

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