Mel Gibson won’t face battery charges – after police found no evidence the actor attacked a reveller at a Los Angeles nightclub.

The Lethal Weapon star and his pregnant girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva made a rare appearance at the launch of Playhouse on Wednesday (29Jul09).

The couple appeared to be enjoying themselves in the hotspot’s VIP section until a magazine reporter, posing as a fan, took pictures of them, according to Hollyscoop.com.

Gibson’s security guards were said to have confiscated the camera and deleted the photos, prompting the relentless journalist to send a male friend to get another shot.

The unidentified man filed a report against the actor, alleging Gibson flew into a rage and attacked the clubgoer before storming out, tearing the man’s shirt.

But police have determined there is no evidence of battery in the case after witnesses protested Gibson was not in close enough proximity to grab the alleged victim – because his security team had wedged him in a booth after several attempts were made to get close to the actor.

According to TMZ.com, police are not expected to interview Gibson.

Source: Contact Music

A man — allegedly attacked by actor Mel Gibson at a nightclub opening in Hollywood – has filed a battery report with the LAPD Hollywood Division, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Despite the incident – which happened infront of Gibson’s pregnant girlfriend — the Oscar winning director/actor was not arrested.

The altercation happened as Gibson and new love Oksana Gregorieva attended a launch party for Hollywood’s Playhouse on Wednesday night, where an eyewitness tells RadarOnline.com the Oscar winner attacked a male clubgoer trying to take a photo.

The shutterbug was put up to taking the photo by a reporter who attempted the same feat but was scalded by VIP security.

The relentless journo asked her friend to try the same, but he unfortunately caught Mel’s wrath. The Braveheart star approached the man and ripped his shirt open.

The upset partygoer departed the scene to file a battery report with police, while Gibson left shortly after. Hollyscoop.com was the first to break the news of the altercation.

Gibson completed probation in February 2008, stemming from his infamous Malibu, Ca. DUI incident in 2006.

Playhouse is a Vegas-style venue headed up by New York nightlife impresario Rob Vinokur.

Source: Radar Online

A jobless Graz man has been jailed for six months for threatening to blow up a police station after he watched a Mel Gibson film.

The 47-year-old, who police said had a long criminal record for burglary, assault and other crimes, had called cops on Easter Sunday and threatened to bomb a Graz police station.

He told the court he had made the threat after drinking too much and taking Valium. He said he had got the idea of making a bomb threat as a joke after watching a Mel Gibson movie.

Judge Erich Nauta told him it had been “a bad joke.”

Source: Austrian Times

a) Wow.
b) Probably Conspiracy Theory
c) Slow news … yeah …

This article was originally in Portuguese. Here’s the Yahoo! Translator best attempt (with a little grammar check by me)…

Actor was infuriated with the siege after its son being stopped by the policy.

Mel Gibson had his patience tested Monday afternoon. The actor drove quickly through a Los Angeles after receiving a phone call from his son Christian, 26 years old, that had been stopped by the police. According to Grosby, Mel Gibson was upset with the paparazzi as they tried to record the scene. Irritated, he got of the car and he started to photograph the group with his iPhone.

“After being stopped and speaking with the police for about five minutes, Christian took the telephone and called his father. Minutes later, he arrived,” said a source. “When he arrived and noticed the presence of the paparazzi, he was infuriated. He seemed a wild insane person,” concluded.

According to Grosby, Christian was stopped by the authorities on the account of tinted windows that are not allowed by law.

Source: Quem Noticias

In their investigation of whether a picture of a bruised and battered Rihanna was part of an LAPD case file before appearing on the celebrity website TMZ.com, the Los Angeles Police Department might get some help from an unlikely ally: Mel Gibson.

Gibson, as you may recall, had details of an arrest report involving his 2006 drunk driving arrest posted on TMZ.com, replete with embarrassing details about an anti-Semitic tirade he directed at a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

That incident — as well as fears about unauthorized disclosures of details in celebrity cases — led to a new state law this year that makes it a misdemeanor for peace officers or law enforcement employees to profit by leaking confidential reports or images. Those who violate the law face a $1,000 fine.

In pushing for the legislation, now dubbed “Mel’s Law,” Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) argued for a crackdown on for-profit leaks because information obtained during criminal investigations could compromise cases.

The LAPD said the release of a photograph purportedly related to an alleged domestic violence incident involving entertainer Chris Brown and an unnamed woman “has the appearance of one taken” as part of evidence collected in the case, though it has yet to be determined if the picture is from the case file or simply an image captured by someone not involved in the formal police investigation.

Even so, police officials noted they had launched an immediate investigation and filed a personnel complaint.

Two years ago, the LAPD found that one of its officers shot video that appeared on TMZ.com showing the rapper The Game bragging with a wad of money inside his jail cell.

The officer told investigators he gave the video, which was shot with a cellphone camera, to TMZ.com because he thought it would be fun, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. Investigators never found any evidence that the officer was paid for the video clip.

Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ.com, has said he does not comment on where his site gets its material.

Source: LA Times

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

Mel Gibson has appealed to a Los Angeles judge to grant a privacy motion in his legal battle with the co-screenwriter of The Passion of the Christ, in a bid to keep financial records about the 2004 film secret.

Benedict Fitzgerald is suing Gibson, who directed the controversial religious epic, over accusations he cheated the screenwriter out of millions of dollars in potential earnings.

He claims Gibson engaged in a “chronic and conspiratorial pattern of deceit” by telling him he was working on a project with a budget of between $4 million and $7 million.

Fitzgerald alleges he was only paid $75,000 and that he had to borrow $200,000 from Gibson to cover expenses. The Passion of the Christ went on to gross an estimated $600 million worldwide.

In a court motion filed on Tuesday, lawyers working for Gibson and his Icon Productions company–which is also named as a defendant–are seeking to seal the movie’s financial information, and only allow Fitzgerald’s attorneys access to them.

Gibson’s appeal comes just days after he filed papers asking a judge to dismiss the fraud allegations filed against him by Fitzgerald.

The two parties are due to meet in court for a hearing on June 20.

Source: Hollywood

Mel Gibson has filed legal papers asking a judge to dismiss a fraud allegation filed in a recent lawsuit by the co-screenwriter of his religious epic The Passion of the Christ.

In his lawsuit, Benedict Fitzgerald claimed Gibson, who directed the controversial 2004 film, engaged in a “chronic and conspiratorial pattern of deceit” by telling him he was working on a project with a budget of between $4 million and $7 million (GBP2 million and GBP3.5 million).

Fitzgerald claims he was only paid $75,000 (GBP37,500) and that he had to borrow $200,000 (GBP100,000) from Gibson to cover expenses. The Passion Of The Christ went on to gross an estimated $600 million (GBP300 million) worldwide. However, in legal documents filed on Tuesday, Gibson claims Fitzgerald had to know The Passion Of The Christ’s budget due to the extensive publicity the film attracted.

The actor/director, who is named as a defendant alongside his Icon Productions company, also claims Fitzgerald waited too long to file his suit and hasn’t offered an adequate explanation for the delay. A hearing is set for 20 June (08).

Source: Contact Music

Things are looking up again for Mel Gibson, after the fallout over his drink driving conviction.

At the weekend he won the Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema Award at the fifth annual Irish Film and Television Academy Awards in Dublin.

It’s the first award of its kind to be presented by the Academy.

Gibson, 52, has starred in more than 48 film and television productions in a career that spans over four decades.

He is best known in Ireland for 1994’s Braveheart, which he starred in and directed in Ireland.

The award came after a Judge Lawrence Mira praised Gibson’s progress in a US court-ordered alcohol rehabilitation program.

She wished him good luck and said he need not report his progress any more to the court.

Gibson will remain on probation for a further 18 months.

Source: SMH

The man who wrote the movie The Passion of the Christ is suing Mel Gibson, claiming the director short-changed him by saying it would be a small film — and not the big budget, big bucks flick it turned out to be.

According to papers filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Benedict Fitzgerald claims that Gibson’s “personal gift to his faith” was to have a budget in the $4-7 million range — and there wouldn’t be a lot of money in the budget for the writer. He was also told several times by Gibson, he claims, that Gibson didn’t plan to make any money from the film.

Instead, according to court documents, the flick cost almost $30 mil and Gibson made a fortune. The film grossed over $600 mil worldwide. Fitzgerald is suing for fraud and asking for damages in excess of $25,000.

Reps for the Mel’s production company, Icon Productions, say the suit is “frivolous” and that Fitzgerald was “handsomely compensated.”

Source: TMZ