GIBSON REGRETS ALL — INCLUDING BECOMING A STAR

Mel Gibson has suggested that he regrets ever having pursued fame as a movie star. In an interview with entertainment attorney-turned-showbiz journalist Allison Hope Weiner posted on DeadlineHollywood.com, Gibson says, “When I was younger and it first started to happen, there’s some kind of novelty to it in your twenties. You quickly realize before your twenties are over, you realize that it’s not anything it appears to be in your imagination or any other thing, and that it has a lot of downside to it. … If I could go back and make that choice again, I’d make a different choice. It’s unfortunate that I was 21 or 22 years old when I made the choice … without benefit of experience or any kind of maturity.” Gibson, who has begun promoting his upcoming movie The Beaver, directed by Jodie Foster, which is set to open in limited release on May 6, insisted “I am angry at me” for the antisemitic words he spoke after he was arrested for DUI and the sexually violent words he spoke to his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, which were all recorded on tape. However, he added, “I’ve never treated anyone badly or in a discriminatory way based on their gender, race, religion or sexuality — period. I don’t blame some people for thinking that though, from the garbage they heard on those leaked tapes, which have been edited. You have to put it all in the proper context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown, trying to get out of a really unhealthy relationship. It’s one terribly, awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn’t represent what I truly believe or how I’ve treated people my entire life.” (Gibson’s claim that the tapes were edited has been disputed.) Asked whether he’s now worried that his audiences might desert him and force him to end his acting career, Gibson replied, “I don’t care if I don’t act anymore. … It really is true.” In an introduction to the interview, Hope Weiner wrote that she decided to give the Gibson interview to Deadline — which is operated by the provocative entertainment columnist Nikki Finke — “because editors at other media outlets seemed inclined to use this story to pursue their own agendas.” She did not specify which other media outlets she had previously approached or what sort of agendas they were endeavoring to pursue.