Hollywood actor and producer Mel Gibson flew across the world to speak about his passion – the Mirador Basin Project.

Unknown to many, the Mirador Basin in Guatemala is the last tract of virgin rainforest remaining in Central America. More importantly, it is home to the largest and earliest cities of the Maya world.

“This is indeed the biggest ‘green’ project that I’ve stepped into and I am very passionate about it.

“I am absolutely in love with the project and struck by wonders of what can be found,” said Gibson, who is here to address Malaysian corporate leaders and environmentalists on the project as well as to raise funds and create awareness.

“It is not developed and there are no roads. It is good that there are no roads so people will not be able to burn the landscape and log,” he said.

Gibson, who is chairman of Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (Fares), is already working with local company Petra Group and the Sekhar Foundation to further develop the project.

The 52-year-old actor of several blockbuster movies like Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart and Apocalypto, and the producer and director of The Passion of the Christ said he first knew about Mirador Basin four years ago.

“I got myself involved in 2004 after my encounter with Dr Richard Hansen, an archaeologist who has devoted over 30 years of his life to this cause. I saw him one day on National Geographic and the rest is history,” he related.

“What Hansen and his team are doing is great but they lack in funds,” he said, adding that some US$600,000 to US$800,000 (RM1.94mil to RM2.59mil) is spent each year to maintain the work.

Sekhar Foundation’s Datuk Vinod Sekhar said much could be learnt from each other.

Apart from supporting the Mirador Basin Project, the foundation is also funding, supporting and facilitating an international research, training and environmental education programme in rainforest ecology conducted by the Royal Society South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme at the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah.

“We can share what we’ve done here and bring it to Mirador Basin,” Vinod said.

Source: The Star

Can’t blame a guy for trying! (O_o)

If a higher power asks for a rewrite, what are you gonna do?

The scribe suing Mel Gibson for fraud over a royalty dispute related to The Passion of the Christ filed an amended lawsuit Monday after being told his original complaint “lacked specificity” and was taking a “chain letter” approach.

Benedict Fitzgerald, who with Gibson penned the Passion screenplay, sued the filmmaker in February for $10 million, claiming he was more or less screwed into accepting a lower-than-normal fee for working on the script after Gibson told him the budget for the film was very small and that he himself would not be taking any proceeds until he had compensated his crew.

Of course, the film went on to gross more than $600 million worldwide—seemingly more than enough to go around.

Meanwhile, Gibson’s camp is looking to have six of the nine allegations leveled at him—including all mentions of fraud—excised from Fitzgerald’s suit.

A judge ruled in May that all of the financial records pertaining to the Passion’s budget and box office will be kept sealed and only made available to each side’s counsel.

Source: E! Online

“The Cleaner,” which follows the adventures of an “extreme interventionist,” is a slightly exasperating new series from A&E — its first original scripted show in six years, the network is proud to point out. There are some good things here, and some that are less good: It’s a mix of the professionally done, the professionally overdone, the reasonably convincing, the surprisingly hackneyed and the occasionally absurd.

We are told by an opening title card that William Banks, who is played by Benjamin Bratt, formerly of “Law & Order,” “has saved 257 people from addiction to drugs, sex and gambling.” (I love the specificity of that figure.) “He’s not a cop,” the title continues. “He’s not a superhero. He’s just a man with a Calling.” Yet he has made himself hard to find, so he’s a man with a calling whom you really have to want to call.

The show is loosely based on the real-life work of Warren Boyd — same initials, see — who is the man Mel Gibson brought to Courtney Love’s Beverly Hills hotel room a few years back to convince her to go into treatment. (Love later recommended him to Whitney Houston.) A figure obviously to be reckoned with, he has developed, according to an A&E news release, “a partly secretive, partly incomprehensible, very nontraditional method that he employs on a daily basis to help others get clean.” Those others range from “high-profile names to perfect strangers.”

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What a difference six months makes. Looking sun-kissed and groomed as she emerged from a beauty salon, Britney Spears looked a world away from the singer whose drama-packed life constantly made the headlines earlier in the year.

The Toxic star reportedly spent four hours having extensions added to her tresses in preparation for shooting a video to accompany Madonna’s ‘Sweet And Sticky’ tour.

Britney’s soul-searching sessions with friend and former neighbor Mel Gibson and her father Jamie seem to have paid off. Not only does the pop princess have greater access to her children with Kevin Federline, she’s also planning a triumphant return to the music scene.

“The video (for Madonna) will be very deep. You’ve never seen Britney like this before. It will blow your mind,” promised an insider.

Source: Hello Magazine

Statuesque actress Sigourney Weaver loves collaborating on films with Mel Gibson - because he is one of the few Hollywood actors who doesn’t make her feel insecure about her height.

Weaver admits she’s struggled with accepting her unusually tall frame - she is 5 feet, 11 inches (1.82 meters) - because it has often intimidated Hollywood’s leading men.

But she insists she’s learned to accept her height since appearing in 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously with Gibson, because his humor about her insecurity helped her get over her fears.

She says, “When I first started out there were very few tall actors… Mel Gibson got on a box, never had a problem. He was just as sweet as can be.

“He was just so secure about my height. He just thought it was a lark, he thought it was funny.”

Source: IMDB

According to the Boston Herald, Mel’s location peeps are poking around the Berkshires to film in the Massachusetts mountains this coming August.

Mel Gibson has twin sons who turn 26 this year, Edward and Christian, who both have stints in rehab. Ed was out of rehab late last year for an alcohol and cocaine addiction, and Christian got a DUI in 2006 and checked into rehab in late January of this year. Mel, who has also has a well publicized DUI under his belt, has recently befriended pop singer Britney Spears, 26. Britney has spent time at Mel’s estate in Costa Rica and has been seen out to dinner with him and his family.

While some speculated that Mel wanted to help Britney with her personal problems, and others wondered if he was trying to convert her to his unique brand of Catholicism, Mel may have had another motivation for spending time with Britney. The National Enquirer reports that Mel tried to set Britney up with the less messed-up twin her age, Edward, but that Britney wasn’t having that. Mel’s son Edward is working his recovery program and The Enquirer says Mel believed he would be a good influence on her.

[Mel Gibson] believed his son Edward - who was in rehab last year for cocaine and alcohol addition - had turned his life around and could help Britney do the same, an insider told The Enquirer.

“Mel felt Ed would be a great influence on Brit, and if the relationship turned to romance, all the better,” said the insider.

So Gibson arranged a meeting between the pair at Britney’s home in the Hollywood Hills last March, said the source.

“He sincerely believed that his son could help Britney stay on the straight and narrow and that they might hit it off as a couple as well,” the insider explained.

But Britney, 26, gave the cold shoulder to Mel and Edward …

“She hid from them most of the night,” revealed the insider. “Mel and his son spent most of the evening talking to her bodyguards.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 7, 2008]

There must have been no hard feelings between Britney and Mel after she tried to avoid the set up with one of his sons. She was seen at his Costa Rican getaway in mid-May. Britney also brought along a man with whom she’s been romantically linked in the past, agent Jason Trawick. Maybe Britney and Jason were already dating at that point and she wasn’t open to meeting Mel’s son or maybe she just wasn’t interested in the guy. Can you imagine thinking it’s a good idea to set up Britney Spears with a member of your family, though? At that point it had only been two months since she had that big melt down and was hospitalized.

Source: Info Jeunes

The National Enquirer are prone to lying, so take this ’story’ for what it’s worth.

I’ve been curious since the story broke as to why Mel Gibson had taken a seemingly sudden interest in Britney Spears. I was hoping maybe he was just being a nice guy and trying to help another one of La La Land’s lost souls. Turns out he may have actually been trying to play matchmaker.

Seems Mel has twin sons, 26, who have been in rehab themselves. Mel decided, according to the Enquirer, that one of his twins would be a good influence on the Britster and decided to arrange for them to meet. Mel and his son, Edward, visited Brit Brit’s home but she didn’t want anything to do with the two and hid out in her room all night.

Obviously this meeting didn’t scare Britney away too much since she ended up going on vacation with Mel and his wife, but at least it answers the burning question of just why Mel took an interest in Britney in the first place. Let’s hope he’s moved on from wannabe father-in-law to just plain friend.

Source: Info Jeunes

Britney Spears and Mel Gibson’s friendship has continued following their Costa Rican holiday last month (May08) - the odd couple was spotted chatting at an exclusive Beverly Hills cigar
lounge on Tuesday night (10Jun08).

Spears and the movie star spent almost three hours talking at what appeared to be a business meeting at a members-only bar, called the Havana Club.

In a bid to avoid a paparazzi frenzy, both stars arrived separately as patrons were watching the Los Angeles Lakers/Boston Celtics basketball final on a big screen.

The bar has long been a favorite for smoking stars - Ben Affleck, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been known to frequent the Havana.

When Spears left with a business associate and her bodyguard, Gibson stayed at the bar for a further hour, leaving at about 11pm, according to People.com.

Source: Contact Music

Britney Spears has accepted an invitation to join Mel Gibson and his family at their Costa Rican home, according to reports.

The pop star and her father Jamie are rumored to be heading to Central America with the 52-year-old Braveheart star and his wife Robyn.

A source tells America’s People magazine, “They’re just going away for a few days to relax.”

The Gibsons and Spears, who are former California neighbors, have reportedly become close since the pop star’s hospitalization in February (08).

A source says, “Mel and his wife Robyn clearly saw a woman in crisis and wanted to extend themselves in any way possible. There are no expectations, there is no agenda. It’s simply an act of human kindness - one neighbor reaching out to the other.”

It’s not the first time Gibson has come to the aid of a young star - earlier this year (08), the movie star dined with Lindsay Lohan and reportedly offered her advice about dealing with the media. [That part is inaccurate]

Source: Contact Music