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Here’s some breaking news—Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite.
OK, so maybe that’s not breaking news. But in a letter to the media, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct”) charged that the actor/filmmaker “hates Jews” after Warner Bros. rejected Eszterhas’ screenplay for Gibson’s movie about Chanukah hero Judah Maccabee.
The letter accuses the Gibber of not really wanting to make the film. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you won’t make ‘The Maccabees’ is the ugliest possible one. You hate Jews,” Joe wrote.
In fact, the Hungarian-born Eszterhas contends that Gibson only got in on the flick so he could “convert the Jews to Christianity.” Ouch.
In a response printed in the Los Angeles Times, Gibson countered that the script was delivered too late and the draft was “substandard,” a “significant waste of time.”
“I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,” Mel wrote. “I absolutely want to make this movie; it’s just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script.”
Summed up Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center: “Jewish history will be better off without Mel Gibson playing Judah Maccabee.”