Gibson asks to meet Jewish leaders
Actor Mel Gibson apologized yesterday for making anti-Semitic remarks in a drunken rant during his arrest last Friday and asked to meet Jewish leaders.
``I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested," Gibson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, ABC pulled a program about the Holocaust that Gibson's company was producing. A spokeswoman for ABC said the television network canceled development of a Holocaust miniseries because nearly two years had passed since ABC struck a deal with Gibson's production company to make it and it had not yet seen a script.
Gibson, who directed 2004's blockbuster movie ``The Passion of the Christ" about the last hours of the life of Jesus, was caught speeding early Friday, and he went on a rant in which he is reported to have said, ``The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department report, parts of which have been widely reported and confirmed by officials, is laced with anti-Semitic remarks and expletives from Gibson. The report said an open bottle of tequila was found in Gibson's car, and yesterday celebrity magazine In Touch Weekly published photos of the actor drinking and hugging female patrons in a bar in Malibu, Calif.
In his statement, the Oscar-winning director of ``Braveheart" and actor in the ``Lethal Weapon" movie series said he had entered ``an ongoing program of recovery." In the past, Gibson has admitted to having problems with alcohol.
His anti-Semitic remarks have raised a huge outcry because before ``Passion," a $610 million global box office hit, Gibson had to deny that neither he nor his movie was anti-Semitic. Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, is a Holocaust denier.
``I'm not just asking for forgiveness," Gibson said. ``I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing."
But several Jewish leaders said he must first complete his recovery program and perform acts of goodwill such as visiting Nazi death camps before they would answer Gibson's plea for help.
``We will know when the time is, but the time is certainly not when his press agents think it is," said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. ``I certainly think he is facing his alcoholism, and now I think he needs to face the statements of bigotry and anti-Semitism the same."
The Anti-Defamation League accepted the apology, and National Director Abraham Foxman said when Gibson's recovery is complete, ``we will be ready and willing to help him."
Gibson acknowledged ``there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed."
Some of that public shunning was evident yesterday on the ABC talk show ``The View."
``I don't think I want to see any more Mel Gibson movies," Barbara Walters said to wild applause from the audience.
Co-host Joy Behar jumped in: ``The world is so dangerous between what's going on in the Middle East right now, and for this idiot to come out and say things. . . . Of course, he's a drunk and that brings it out of him."
The sheriff's deputy who arrested Gibson said he feels badly that the star's reputation has been damaged but said he hopes Gibson will think twice before drinking and driving again. ``I don't take pride in hurting Mr. Gibson," Deputy James Mee said in an interview outside his home.
Gibson is reported to have asked Mee during the arrest: ``Are you a Jew?" Mee, who is Jewish, said he didn't take Gibson's remarks seriously. ``That stuff is booze talking," the deputy said.
FROM WIRE REPORTS 
