Mel Gibson on Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Shalom to You’
Three years after his anti-Semitic outburst after being pulled over by police in Malibu, Mel Gibson emerged after the Oscars to receive a warm reception from a live television audience.
The 1995 Oscar-winning director, who told police officers during a July 2006 drunken driving arrest that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” appeared last night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” As part of the interview, the 53-year-old actor screened a mock trailer for what he jokingly described as his next project: a biopic about Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland “Colonel” Sanders.
The segment received enthusiastic laughter and applause from the audience, which also laughed as the actor joked with Kimmel about one of the sexist names he’d called a female police officer during his arrest. Kimmel, a Catholic who for years dated Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman, didn’t mention Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks during the interview, nor did the actor bring them up.
But Kimmel did greet Gibson with a Shalom, to which Gibson replied “Shalom to you.” The exchange can be seen below.
As part of Gibson’s appearance, Kimmel also displayed a copy of “The Passion of the Christ,” the 2004 Gibson film that some critics accused of reviving deicide charges against Jews. The movie recently came out on Blu-ray.
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