Gibson once allegedly asked Winona Ryder if she were an ‘oven dodger’ ABC’s Kimmel apologizes for blackface in Malone costume
Mel Gibson, who spouted an anti-Semitic rant during a drunken arrest in 2006, once asked Winona Ryder if she was an “oven dodger,” according to the Jewish actress.
Ryder was at a party with a friend when she ran into the famed Hollywood actor and director, she told the Sunday Times. Gibson allegedly turned to her friend, who is gay, and asked if he’s “gonna get AIDS?” Then, she claims, he turned to Ryder and asked if she was an “oven dodger,” referring to the gas chambers of the Holocaust.
Gibson “tried” to apologize later, Ryder told the Times, but she didn’t go into any more details.
Gibson denies making those comments.
Gibson, best known for movies including “Braveheart” and “The Passion of the Christ,” was briefly as well-known for the 2006 arrest, during which he told the arresting officer that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”
In a statement after the arrest, Gibson said there is “no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark.”
“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 on a DUI charge,” he said. “I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena.”
Neither the DUI nor the 2010 accusations by his then-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, that he hit her so hard while she was carrying their baby daughter that he broke her teeth, have slowed Gibson’s career.
In a leaked tape of their conversation, Gibson also told Griogrieva that it would be her fault if she got “raped by a pack of (N-word).”
Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge for hitting Grigorieva, served probation, underwent court-ordered counseling and paid $600 in fines.
By 2016, Gibson was back on track, as “Hacksaw Ridge,” which he directed, drew a $175 million worldwide box office and six Oscar noms.
Jimmy Kimmel apologized Tuesday for his 1990s blackface impressions of NBA player Karl Malone and other Black celebrities but said his delay in addressing the subject came in part to avoid handing a victory to his foes.
“I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke,” the ABC latenight star said in a statement.
It’s part of the entertainment world’s continuing reckoning triggered by the protests against police treatment of Black Americans.
On Monday, four episodes of the comedy “30 Rock” were pulled from circulation because they featured characters performing in blackface.
Kimmel’s impersonation of Malone, which he started on radio and then brought to television on Comedy Central, was frequently criticized by Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, among others.
Kimmel said he had long been reluctant to address the subject, “as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us.
“That delay was a mistake,” he said.
“30 Rock” aired on NBC from 2006 to 2013, but episodes are still being shown in television syndication and on streaming services including Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes and Peacock.
Show creator Tina Fey, who also starred as Liz Lemon in the series about the backstage world of a television show, said in a note to distributors that “I understand now that ‘intent’ is not a free pass for white people to use these images.”
“I apologize for the pain they have caused,” Fey wrote. “Going forward, no comedy-loving kid really needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness.”
Two of the four eliminated “30 Rock” episodes originally aired in 2010, with the others first shown in 2008 and 2010. They include the East Coast version of an episode first shown live. Series regular Jane Krakowski and guest star Jon Hamm appeared in blackface. Associated Press TV Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report from Los Angeles.