August
2 Message to Mel from Larry

Larry Gelbart sent this message to me for Mel:

"Icon Productions, indeed.

You managed to con everyone, sir. Including those of your own faith.

The Jewish people, who managed to survive Goebbels, will survive one more Mel-content, one who already has a cocktail named after him.

The leaders of this community, with rare exception, have contracted a case of laryngitis in this matter, largely choosing not to speak out against a man who so stokes the bonfires of bigotry.

When the people who feel exactly the same way that Mel Gibson feels come to take us and families to the ovens, they make absolutely no distinction between those who spoke out and those who chose to play it safe."

P.S. Larry also told me: "The reason ABC canceled Mel Gibson's new version of the holocaust -- in his version, the Jews killed six million Nazis."

Congrats Larry. And to those who had been reading my column all these years, you learned Mel's feelings beyond question. So much so that two years ago, Mel's longtime agent Ed Limato politely disinvited me from his annual Oscar party fearing my presence might embarrass his guest and client, Mel Gibson.