After a decade as H’wood’s least wanted, is Mel Gibson truly forgiven?
After a 10minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Fest, I knew Mel was back. Producer David Permut
Right now, no one in Hollywood has a more dramatic villain-turned-hero story than Mel Gibson. After a decade-long, self-inflicted trip to hell, the actor/director is back on top with six Oscar nominations for his film “Hacksaw Ridge,” including Best Director for Gibson himself.
“Guys like Leo [DiCaprio], Tom Hardy and Bradley Cooper are dying to work with him,” one studio exec told The Post. At his rock bottom, Gibson was dumped by agency WME; now he’s been picked up by flashier powerhouse CAA.
So how did the man who a year ago was considered a Hollywood pariah — guilty of racism, misogyny and homophobia — manage to come back smiling?
As always, money talks: “Hacksaw Ridge” has made $174.9 million at the box office worldwide.
“Hollywood is so fickle,” said one box-office expert. “They don’t forgive [just because] you have life s--t going on. They know addicts can make great artists. But can they make money? That’s the real question.”
In the 1980s and ’90s, Gibson was an A-list quadruple threat, able to handily tackle comedy, action, drama and romance. A devout Catholic, he was also a family man and dad to seven kids with then-wife Robyn. People magazine anointed him “Sex- iest Man Alive” in 1985.
Still, Gibson’s brutal outspokenness raised hackles. He made homophobic statements to a Spanish newspaper in 1991; when GLAAD requested an apology, the actor told Playboy, “when hell freezes over.” After New York Times writer Frank Rich criticized the director’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Gibson told The New Yorker, “I want his intestines on a stick.”
Fueled by alcohol, things went offf the rails in 2006. When he was picked up for a DUI near Malibu, Calif., Gibson told a police officer, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” He called a female officer on the scene “sugar tits” and bragged that he owned Malibu.
A month later, he separated from his wife of nearly three decades. Friends including Amy Pascal, then the head of Sony, turned on him.
In 2010, transcripts surfaced of epic misogynistic and racist rants taped by former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, with quotes including “If you get raped by a pack of [N-words], it will be your fault.” She claimed he had punched her on the head and face more than once. (Gibson, who stated he had slapped Grigorieva to get her to stop shaking their baby daughter, pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor battery in 2011 and served no jail time.)
Hollywood drew the line. WME head Ari Emanuel fired Gibson. A role in the sequel to “The Hangover 2” was nixed. Gibson worked on a handful of films, but none made a blip (ever heard of “Get the Gringo”?). That is, until he directed “Hacksaw Ridge,” the true story of a WWII soldier who refused to use weaponry but saved 75 lives.
At first, “No studio would touch it,” said David Permut, a producer along with Bill Mechanic and Terry Benedict. “It was a rough go. We had to raise [$40 million] independently.
“Mel was misjudged by so many people,” he added. “The man was in a life crisis back then: a painful divorce, alcoholism, [Hollywood] turning on him.”
But when Lionsgate saw a cut of the film in April 2016, Permut recalled, the studio said, ‘‘ ‘You get a November release and an Oscar campaign.’ After a 10-minute standing ovation [at] the Venice Film Fest last summer, I knew Mel was back.”
“Hacksaw Ridge” star Andrew Garfield, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, can’t seem to walk a red carpet without talking about his respect for the director.
“One thing that was always true is that Mel Gibson’s a great filmmaker. That’s why the directors’ branch of the Academy nominated him for Best Director — they respect craft,” said one member of the Academy.
Friends claim that Gibson, 61, is different now. The biggest change, one said, “is Mel stopped drinking. Then he apologized till he was blue in the face. He gave millions to Jewish causes.”
He is also said to be happy with his girlfriend of two years, screenwriter Rosalind Ross. The 26-year-old gave birth to their son, Lars, the same week Oscar nominations were announced.
Pascal and Emanuel are back in the fold. Gibson just shot “The Professor and the Madman” with Sean Penn and will star in “Daddy’s Home 2.” He’s producing a TV show, “The Barbary Coast,” starring Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson. “And he’s being chased to direct the sequel to ‘Suicide Squad,’ ” said one agent. “He’s the hottest guy in town.”
“Still,” the Academy member said, “I don’t forgive him. I don’t forgive Woody Allen, either. But at some point, you have to separate the artist from the art.”