ABC's Diane Sawyer has secured the first sit-down interview with Mel Gibson since last July.
The two-part interview will air Oct. 12 and 13 on "Good Morning America."

The interview is a segment of the morning show. "It's not going to be the entire Good Morning America," said ABC publicist Bridgette Maney.
Alan Nierob, Gibson's spokesman, would not divulge what the director said, only saying that Mel Gibson has met with members of the Jewish community who have been "welcoming and supporting."

The wedding of the year!!!
Escutter will marry soon. In fact, our star has not yet a fiancιe, but Josι de Jesϊs Barroso Padilla (the vet in charge of Escutter΄s welfare) affirms that the authorities are negotiating the marriage with a zoo in Honduras. Meanwtime, the possible bride is biting "her nails" while the skilful negotiators reach a decision concerning her future.
The newlyweds will inhabit a splendid mansion (more splendid than Mr. Gibson's new house). Escutter's mansion has taken as model the Mayan buildings. In fact, its faηade is a pre-hispanic temple! It has three spacious rooms and a SWIMMING-POOL!!! Hollywood stars really don't suffer privations.
Escutter has invested 250,000 pesos (its whole wages) in the house.
To those who own a female tapir: Escu is a good match, a famous star who will win an Oscar sooner or later. Escu loves fruits (bananas) and vegetables.

The interview was taped at the offices of Mel Gibson΄s film company, Icon Productions.
It has been edited to two 10-12 minute segments.

www.abc.com
Mel Gibson is speaking out for the first time about the anti-Semitic comments he made to police when they booked him for drunken driving last summer.
ABC's Diane Sawyer recently sat down for an exclusive interview with Gibson.
Sawyer asked Gibson what caused his comments on the night of his arrest.
Diane Sawyer: "What did you think it was?"
Mel Gibson: "Me? It was just the stupid rambling of a drunkard, you know and … what I need to do to heal myself and to be assuring and allay the fears of others and to heal them if they had any heart wounds from something I may have said. So, this is the last thing I want to be is that kind of monster," Gibson said.
Gibson apologized for the comments in a statement but has not discussed the incident at length until now.
ABCNews.com will release more excerpts from his full interview with Sawyer later today.
On Oct. 12, Sawyer will ask Gibson about alcoholism and drunk driving. On Oct. 13, she will ask him about his anti-Semitic remarks.
Watch Sawyer's exclusive interview with Mel Gibson Thursday, Oct. 12 and Friday, Oct. 13 on "Good Morning America," which airs across the country from 7 to 9AM.
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Extracts from the interview, www.abc.com
"How much did you read of people who came out and said, Do not work with him again? What do you feel about them?" Sawyer asks Gibson in the interview. "I feel sad because they've obviously been hurt and frightened and offended enough to feel that they have to do that," he says. "Um, and it's their choice. There's nothing I can do about that."
Gibson says that he will continue to work and make movies.
"I'll always continue to work. I've never much depended on anyone but myself, as far as that goes," he says. "And, hey, I'm not under the illusion that everything's just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I've never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow."
In time, Gibson says he hopes he can make amends for his statements and convince people he isn't anti-Semitic.
"Would you like to say to them, 'Give me a chance to show you who I am?'" Sawyer asks. "Well, hopefully … in time they'll know," he says. "And, you're powerless over everything really. … All you can do is take another step, keep breathing."
In August, Gibson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving with an elevated blood-alcohol level and was sentenced to three years probation.
He was also ordered to undergo rehabilitation for alcohol abuse. He told Sawyer that he has not had a drink in 65 days.
"No, nothing," he says. "It's…it's poison." But he admits that staying sober is a constant struggle
"A couple of times, you know, it was like oh, man, the hell with it, you know," Gibson says. "But you don't, because I have friends and people that care and, you know, you'll fortunately be at the right place at the right time to, you know, reach out and … And many people have reached out. My goodness. I mean it's … I've been overwhelmed."
Mel has said he struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse in the past.
Gibson says that he had begun drinking again a couple of months before his July arrest.
"Years go by, you're fine. And then all of a sudden in a heartbeat, in an instant, on an impulse, somebody shoves a glass of Mescal in front of your nose, and says, 'It's from Oaxaca,'" he says. "And it's burning its way through your esophagus, and you go, 'Oh, man, what did I do that for? I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'"

www.abc.com
Oct. 12, 2006 - On the morning following his arrest for drunken driving, actor Mel Gibson continued drinking as he talked to his children at home, he told Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America. "
Gibson spoke out for the first time today about the anti-Semitic comments he made to police when they booked him for drunken driving over the summer.
"I just went home and saw my kids were there. You know, I talked to them for a little bit. And it was a little … rough that morning," Gibson said. "I chased it down with a few cold ones."
"It was kind of unbearable to face. … I said, 'Well, this is it. This will be the end of it, but I just have to get through this morning,'" he said. "You're not operating well, but you know you have to do something. … I wasn't flashing it in front of them or anything."
The actor called July 28 a "day to remember" in the interview.
Like most days, he went to work, saw people, and saw a screening of his friend's movie, he said.
"I guess I must have been a little overwrought. So … and that's what happens. Too much pressure, too much work. You do things that go against good judgment," he told Sawyer. "A few drinks later, and I was in the back of a police car wailing."
Gibson said that he didn't know how many drinks he had that night, but that he was drinking tequila and that he had been drinking again for a couple of months.
"Years go by. You're fine. And then all of a sudden in a heartbeat, in an instant, on an impulse, somebody shoves a glass of Mescal in front of your nose, and says, 'It's from Oaxaca,'" he said. "And it's burning its way through your esophagus, and you go, 'Oh, man, what did I do that for? I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'"
The night of his arrest, Gibson drank a few swigs from an open bottle in the car.
"It's not a question of how drunk you are," he said of that night. "You're impaired. … Your judgment is impaired enough to do insane things like try and drive at high speeds."
"Even a couple of drinks, you know, you lose all humility, all … everything, and you just become a braggart and a blowhard," he said.
While handcuffed in the back of the police car, Gibson said he told authorities, "I own this place."
As the officer arrested him, Gibson also went on a tirade against Jews.
He asked Officer James Mee, who is Jewish, "Are you a Jew?"
"The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," he said that night to Mee.
Gibson said he didn't know at the time that Mee was Jewish.
"I found out later, but that's all," he said. "I didn't know if he was or wasn't. I mean, I said horrible things to him … and he was pretty patient."
Gibson said his words were anti-Semitic. "It sounds horrible, and I'm ashamed of that. That came out of my mouth," he said. "And I'm not that. That's not who I am, you know."
"Alcohol is used to kill pain. … And it is no excuse, by the way. It's not a good enough excuse," he said.
When asked whether the police officer had been black, Gibson said he was not sure what he would have said.
"I'd have to get loaded and tell you. And then be in those conditions again. Because it's unpredictable what's gonna come flying out," Gibson told Sawyer.
At the police station, a still-angry Gibson asked a female sergeant, "What do you think you're looking at?" and then made a reference to her breasts.
Gibson said he was a "happy drunk, until I snap for no reason and just turn. … It's unpredictable."
The actor said he didn't know what the source of his anger was.
"I've been angry all my life. … And I try not to have it manifest itself. You know? You try and keep a lock on it. … It's real back there some place," he said. "I've talked to people about that, and 'Where is it coming from?' I can get really mad. … I can murder inanimate objects. You should see me choking the toaster in the morning."
"So I'm kind of a work in progress right now. You got me a little green. I mean, I just got out of the straitjacket with the messy hair and everything," he said.
When Gibson was getting his mug shot taken, his initial thought was of Nick Nolte's widely publicized mug shot after he was arrested in Malibu for driving under the influence.
"I did my best with a finger combing in the water fountain, to sort of like splash a little water on my face, to not take one of those hideous mug shots, because I knew it would be around," he said. "Vanity won out."
Gibson said he had a long list of apologies to make. "I've apologized more than anyone I know, so it's getting old," he said. "[The list] is huge. For my whole life."


Gibson said his wife's reaction to his relapse was compassionate.
"I just told her you know, straight out: 'Slipped again,'" he said.
"She was like, 'Of course.' You know? She doesn't like that. … But, she was gracious … compassionate."
Gibson and his wife, Robyn, have been married for 26 years and have seven children.
Gibson has said that she gets medals.
"She hopes. She bears the brunt. And it's no different this time. … There you have it," he said.
But every time you relapse, it's harder to fight your way back, Gibson said.
"The risk of everything - life, limb, family - is not enough to keep you from it," he said. "That's the hell of it. You are indefensible against it."
Gibson said, in that situation, you will sacrifice anything.
"So you must keep that under arrest, in a sense. But you cannot do it of yourself. And people can help, yeah. But it's God. You gotta go there. You gotta do it," Gibson said. "Or you won't survive. All there is to it."
Gibson now says he views the experience as a blessing.
"Well, firstly, I got stopped before I did any real damage to anyone else. Thank God for that. I didn't hurt myself. You know, I didn't leave my kids fatherless. That's a blessing," he said.
"The other thing is that sometimes you need a big bucket of water to snap to because you're dealing with a sort of … a malady of the soul, and obsession of the mind, and a physical allergy. And some people need a big tap on the shoulder, you know?"
"In my case, public humiliation on a global scale … seems to be what was required," he said.
But Gibson experienced humiliation for him, outrage from others, and powerful questions from all.
Gibson said he didn't believe that alcohol liberated people to say what they really felt. "That's patently false," he said. "Alcohol loosens your tongue and makes you act, say and behave in a way that is not you."
"That's the old Roman saying, in vino veritas. … They don't know what they're talking about. It's as simple as that. Or they don't have the problem, and they don't understand it."
When they're drunk, "people say all sorts of horrible things … not just anti-Semitic things. They say horrendous things. … They say to their parents, 'I hate you and I want you to die,'" he said. "They don't mean that stuff. … It's the stuff that comes out when you're loaded. It's extreme."
"But if it is not in you, is it going to come out?" Sawyer asked Gibson.
"It has to have some kind of place somewhere, and you have to ask where is it coming from? Where is it coming from?" he said.

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According to Reuters, the sheriff's deputy (sheriff Mee) who arrested actor Mel Gibson for drunken driving has had his home searched by fellow officers investigating how a police account of the actor's anti-Semitic tirade was made public, it was reported on Thursday.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore refused to confirm or deny the report, saying only that the department is "investigating the unauthorized release of documents connected to the investigation" of the Gibson case.
Neither Mee nor his lawyer were available for comment.

www.abc.com
Actor-director Mel Gibson told Diane Sawyer today that he was "ashamed" by the remarks about Jews he made during his July arrest for driving while intoxicated.
On the night of July 28, Gibson said he knew what might have been in his mind as he drunkenly said, "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."
"That's fear related, OK? So, you know, you have your own fears about these things," he said on "Good Morning America."
"Now, maybe it was just that very day that Lebanon and Israel were at it, you know," Gibson said of that night.
It was the 17th day of the raging war in Lebanon. A lot of people were worrying that the crisis was escalating out of control. "Since I was a kid in the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and now in the new millennium, you can read of an ever-escalating kind of conflagration over there in the Middle East that … I remember thinking when I was 20, man, that place is going to drag us all into the black hole, you know, just the … the difficulty over there," he said. "You start thinking will I ever see my grandchildren grow up? … What's going to become of the world? What's going to press the button?"
"But there's a difference between saying that place is a tinderbox and the constellation of things happening there could take us all down, and saying the Jews are responsible for all the wars," Sawyer said.
"Well, I did," he said of his comment to the officer that night.
"The Jews are responsible?" Sawyer said.
"Well. … Strictly speaking, that's … that's not true because it takes two to tango," he said. "What are they responsible for? I think that they're not blameless in the conflict. There's been aggression, and retaliation and aggression. It's just part of being in conflict, and being at war. So, they're not blameless."
Gibson said that when people are drunk, they express what they think incorrectly.
"Now when you're loaded, you know, the balance of how you see things — it comes out the wrong way. I know that it's not as black and white as that. I know that you just can't, you know, roar about things like that. That it's wrong," he said.
When Sawyer countered that a lot of people would say he was still blaming the Jews, Gibson said he wasn't blaming them.
"No, no. Did … did I say that?" he asked.
After several rounds on the Middle East, he said this was his statement of his true feelings. "Let me be real clear, here. In sobriety, sitting here, in front of you, national television. … That I don't believe that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. I mean that's an outrageous, drunken statement," he said.
But he said something else was eating at him that night. He said he had realized he had been harboring an old resentment.
"The other place it may have come from is, you know, as you know, a couple of years ago I released the film 'Passion.' … Even before anyone saw a frame of the film, for an entire year, I was subjected to a pretty brutal sort of public beating," he said.
"During the course of that, I think I probably had my rights violated in many different ways as an American. You know. As an artist. As a Christian. Just as a human being, you know."
Tens of millions of Christians who saw the film said it was simply evoking the New Testament version of Jews, Romans, and the brutal crucifixion of Jesus.
But the leaders of several Jewish organizations launched a campaign arguing that Gibson had seeded the film with deliberately anti-Semitic images. They also warned that Gibson might be inciting a new wave of hatred and even of violence against Jews.
He said that never happened.
"The film came out. It was released, and you could have heard a pin drop, you know. Even the crickets weren't chirping," he said. "But, the other thing I never heard was the one single word of apology."
"I thought I dealt with that stuff. All forgiveness, but, the human heart's a funny thing. Sometimes you can bear the scars of resentment. And … it'll come out, you know, when you're overwrought, you take a few drinks," he said. "There was anger from that, I think. … My resentment stemmed from certain individuals treating me in a certain way."
But can't the individuals he had wanted to apologize now argue they were right about what's inside him?
Gibson said he didn't know if a person could say anti-Semitic and intolerant things and not be anti-Semitic and intolerant.
"I don't know the answer to that question. Because one changes from day to day. And there are different forces exercised on you. … And people every day say things they don't mean. And things they don't feel. They may feel them temporarily. I mean we're … we're all broken," he said.
Gibson said he was now learning more about those who were hearing his words in an earlier apology. He asked the Jewish community for dialogue and help.
"I heard back that a woman who had read the apology actually wept with relief," he said. "Now, that sort of hit me. I was like, 'Relief? Oh, my God. She was afraid. She was terrified.'"
"I don't think I realized until like a couple of … four days later, five days later, that what I did was press a big fear button," Gibson said. "I didn't realize the level of fear that … that was there."
"It was just the stupid ramblings of a drunkard, you know, and I guess I had to sort of think, well, hang on. It's conceivable that they think I can be the next … uh, goose-stepping maniac to come into their neighborhood," he said.
But for several years, there has been one other question that has plagued him: the fact that his father has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews were really murdered in the Holocaust.
Three years ago in an interview, Gibson told ABC News that he believed 6 million Jews were murdered.
But when asked to repudiate the assertions of his father, he declined.
"He's my father. Gotta leave it alone, Diane. Gotta leave it alone," Gibson said during that interview.
"We're talking about me right now. And me taking responsibility for my words and actions. And … I'm certainly not going to use him, to sort of put anything off of me," he said. "It isn't the explanation for what happened that night. It isn't. It has nothing to do with it. … That's in my own heart."
"I was taught that there are good and bad people of any race and creed, you know," he said.
Sawyer also asked about those in the Hollywood community who say that it's too late and that Gibson should be ostracized.
Gibson said he felt sad about those people.
"They've obviously been hurt and frightened and offended enough to feel that they have to do that and. … It's their choice," he said. In the meantime, Gibson said he had to go on battling his old demons of rage and alcohol and hoping that if there's not a Hollywood ending that somehow, somewhere there's at least another chance.
"Somebody said to me once, 'Pain is the precursor to change,'" Sawyer told Gibson.
"Yes, who said that? Socrates?" Gibson said.
But it was Gibson himself who had said it.
Gibson said he'd been very ashamed of what happened that night.
"That's the price you pay because sometimes that's what you need," he said.
But Gibson hasn't been totally alone.
"Many people have reached out. My goodness. I mean it's … I've been overwhelmed. It almost choked me," he said. "I'm so overwhelmed by the response of … of friends, family and, you know, even the Jewish community. I mean the … the letters and stuff that came in were really encouraging. They … sort of … you know, sort of broke my heart a little bit."
"Because it's like, you know, it's like they understood. There's a lot of compassion out there, so that was … kind of overwhelming for me. … And … don't want to disappoint anyone again," he said.
Now Gibson is trying to heal.
"What I need to do to heal myself and to be assuring and allay the fears of others and to heal them if they had any heart … wounds from something I may have said," he said. "So, this is the last thing I want to be is that kind of monster."

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