Mel Gibson Sympathizes with Michael Richards

Just read this article by the Associated Press. Sorry if anyone has already posted this:

Mel Gibson Feels Michael Richards' Pain
By Associated Press
Wed Nov 29, 5:38 PM

Actor-director Mel Gibson is seen after accepting an award ...
NEW YORK - Though he's lost many fans after being captured on video hurling racist epithets at a comedy club audience, Michael Richards has an ally: Mel Gibson. "I felt like sending Michael Richards a note," Gibson says in an interview in Entertainment Weekly's Dec. 8 issue.

"I feel really badly for the guy. He was obviously in a state of stress. You don't need to be inebriated to be bent out of shape. But my heart went out to the guy."

The 50-year-old actor-director added: "They'll probably torture him for a while and then let him go. I like him."

After his Nov. 17 tirade became known, Richards apologized on David Letterman's "Late Show" on CBS, saying his remarks were sparked by anger at being heckled, not bigotry. He also apologized to the Rev. Al Sharpton and on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's syndicated radio program.

Gibson, star of the "Lethal Weapon" movies and director of "The Passion of the Christ," was mired in a scandal of his own this summer for anti-Semitic comments he made to police in Malibu, Calif., during his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. He publicly apologized.

Are people refusing to work with him?

"No, people aren't like that," Gibson tells the magazine. "Those are just the headlines: Mel ostracized by Hollywood! Hollywood is what you make it. There is no great pooh-bah up there saying, `Go! You are condemned!'"

Gibson says he's not anti-Semitic.

"I never have been and never would be," he says. "But (the incident) hit this fear thing in me. My god, I made people afraid. ... And it was a horrible feeling. That's when I said, `My god, I don't want to be that monster.'"

His new movie, "Apocalypto," from The Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures, opens Dec. 8. It is a Mayan-language epic filmed in Mexico chronicling the decline of the native civilization.

He's confident his past remarks will not hurt the movie at the box office.

"It's primarily entertainment," he says of his production. "An 18-year-old college guy, out with his buddies, he's going to get into the chase. The movie will stand on its own, regardless of any unfortunate experience I may have stumbled upon."

___[/b]On the Net:

"Apocalypto": http://apocalypto.movies.go.com/

Entertainment Weekly: http://www.ew.com/melgibson

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

Birds of the same feather often flock together.

 

Yes, they certainly do. I guess whatever takes the heat off of one over the other for a while will suffice.

 

"But my heart went out to the guy."

Oh, of course it would.............Mel Gibson - :x :x

 

While I'm still trying to figure out if Richards is Jewish or not many of them are saying he's not a bigot but Mel Gibson is. IMO Richards' comments were far worse than Gibson's.