Tel-Chai Nation

Considering just how horrific Gibson's view of Jews happens to be, that's why the news that the project is being let go for now is decidedly best (via Big Hollywood), and Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Wiesenthal Institute also agrees:

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he was pleased that the project had been shelved.

"Jewish history will be better off without Mel Gibson playing Judah Maccabee," Hier told TheWrap.

Or even directing. I wouldn't trust him behind the camera either.

But this is just the beginning. Joe Eszterhas, who was supposed to work on the screenplay, gave a letter to The Wrap (also via Big Hollywood) arguing further that Gibson's intentions were less than noble:

In an explosive nine-page letter to Gibson obtained by TheWrap (read the full letter here), the screenwriter wrote that the director of “The Passion of the Christ” never intended to make the movie about Jewish heroism, called “The Maccabees.”

Instead, Eszterhas said, Gibson announced the project “in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism which have dogged you, charges which have crippled your career.”

He added: “I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you won’t make ‘The Maccabees’ is the ugliest possible one. You hate Jews.” [...]

Eszterhas’ letter reveals a more complex dynamic, a disturbing picture of Gibson as a man yet again out of control, inflicting frequent rages on those around him, in the grip of an anti-Semitic obsession, and possibly dangerous to those around him.

On several occasions, said Eszterhas, Gibson “was wild, crazed, and explosive.”

The April 9 letter also recounts Gibson’s threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Gregorieva.

“You were raving at Oksana even after you’d reached a custody agreement over Luci,” their daughter, the letter says. “And then you were even more explicit about your threat: “I’m going to kill her! I’m going to have her killed!” You said you’d become friends with two FBI agents (or former FBI agents) and they were going to help you to kill her.”

Gibson’s anti-Semitic obsession was a leitmotif of working on the film together at Gibson’s homes in Malibu and Costa Rica, Eszterhas said.

"You continually called Jews 'Hebes' and 'oven-dodgers' and 'Jewboys.' It seemed that most times when we discussed someone, you asked 'He’s a Hebe, isn’t he?' You said most 'gatekeepers' of American companies were 'Hebes' who 'controlled their bosses.'"

The slurs continued, through their work:

“You said the Holocaust was 'mostly a lot of horseshit.' You said the Torah made reference to the sacrifice of Christian babies and infants. When I told you that you were confusing the Torah with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ... you insisted 'it's in the Torah -- it's in there!' (It isn't)."

Okay, I've heard enough. I haven't seen the Lethal Weapon movies in years, but I do know that at least a few of the people involved in that decidedly overrated action movie series are some of the most disgusting scum of the earth (take Danny Glover, for instance), and I'd strongly advise anyone looking for an enjoyable action film to look elsewhere. After Gibson's tirade following his pullover for speeding and drunk driving, I can sadly believe everything Eszterhas says about that pond scum. Ugh, how dare he ever even remotely claim to be a conservative.

Update: Eszterhas also says he's got a taping.

Labels: anti-semitism, misogyny, showbiz, United States