15 SEPTEMBER 2007.- AN UNUSUAL CHRONICLE
Source: electric new paper
You´d think he could afford the genuine crocs, but Mel Gibson admitted he was wearing a 'cheesy imitation from Costa Rica' of the popular shoe.
No airs, certainly no glam factor, no fuss, the actor has been in and out of Singapore twice in a week, and been everywhere.
If you have yet to acquaint yourself with the delights of eating with your fingers off a banana leaf, you have missed him at Banana Leaf Apolo, if you're not on Forbes' list, you have missed him at the Forbes Global CEO conference, if you can't stand on your head, you have missed him at True Yoga.
The director of dramatic films like Braveheart, Passion of Christ and Apocalypto, was in Singapore and Malaysia on a private visit but was at the mercy of his hosts Datuk Vinod Sekhar and Mr Patrick Wee.
Mel said 'I have been stuffing my face' and he finds Singapore and its people 'warm and nice'.
He did recall: 'When I was about 12, I'd heard that the police here would cut off long hair on men. I'm glad to see that's no longer enforced.'
Just before he flew off on Thursday, Mel made another stop, at Mr Wee's True Yoga for a charity event.
Mel's other big passion is children. He has seven, from age eight to 27 - he shook his head when giving their ages - and he was to present a cheque to Kidz Horizon which looks after children with Aids and cancer.
Datuk Vinod of Petra Foundation and Mr Wee each donated $10,000, but Mel added his $25,000, and this was then matched by the other two men (well wouldn't you).
A surprised Dr Caroline Low-Heah, founder of Kidz Horizon, squealed and the cheques were amended to $75,000.
Mel is one of the 'large investors' in Green Rubber Global which is part of Petra foundation.
After seven kids, isn't it a bit late to be investing in rubber?
An apocalyptic laugh and he shuffled off in his mock crocs.
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15 SEPTEMBER 2007.- FUNNY RUMOUR 1,999,999
Source: News.pl (Poland)
The most expensive ever big-budget movie is about to be made in Poland. "Victoria" retells the story of the Polish victory in the 1683 Battle of Vienna. Possible highlights include Hollywood cast and "Lord of the Rings" special effects crew.
The budget for the movie is to be 200 million zloty (50 million euro).
The ambitious plans for the project include asking Mel Gibson to direct and play the part of king Sobieski for 20 million dollars, casting Robert De Niro, as well as getting the famous "Lord of the Ring" crew to create special effects.
The first ever film fund in Poland is being created by Mariusz A. Bialek, producer of "Victoria". Investors will buy shares and make profit when, or rather if, the film starts to gross money.
Such funds have been successful abroad.
"A film fund would definitely prove an interesting change for investors, especially in a time of prolonged corrections of the stock market. Films can be a highly profitable investment, but a risky one as well", Mateusz Walczak, President of New World Alternative Investments told Puls Biznesu.
The fund will be open so anyone will be able to buy shares. "The price per share has not yet been established", says Bialek, who will pay for the film with his own money.
He first got interested in making the movie after the 9/11 attacks. "The associations seemed obvious. Here was another clash of two religious worlds. 11 September 1683 Muslim fighters were also at the heart of Western civilization. And then too the Western world united", recounts Bialek.
The work on "Victoria" started 3 years ago when Bialek asked scriptwriter Cezary Harasimowicz to write the script.
Getting such stars as Mel Gibson involved are optimistic, however, as HIS DIARY IS FULL FOR THE NEXT SIX YEARS.
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17 SEPTEMBER 2007.- 12 YEARS AGO...
FESTIVAL DE CINE DE SAN SEBASTIAN 17 September 1995
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Click  HERE  to see photos
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18 SEPTEMBER 2007.- TODAY, A GLANCE AT EL MIRADOR
Gibson serves on the board of Hansen's foundation, and he has visited the ruins and donated to Hansen's project
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Source: Los Angeles Times (from "Hiking through Guatemalan jungle to ruins of the ancient Maya", posted January 2007)
For several centuries around the time of Christ, El Mirador dominated the larger Mirador Basin, an Orange County-sized region with at least 26 major ruins and dozens of smaller ones. It's an area of spectacular archeological richness, and it faces threats that need no embellishment from Hollywood.
Looters, slash-and-burn farmers and drug smugglers, or "narco-ranchers," already have plundered, razed and effectively seized much of the jungle in El Petén. They now threaten the Mirador Basin, most of which is outside the park.
Hansen and his allies - most prominently the Palo Alto-based Global Heritage Fund - have pressed to expand park boundaries and develop El Mirador as a tourist attraction. Only tourist dollars can save the jungle and its treasures, Hansen says.
But his proposals do not sit well with community logging cooperatives and industrial loggers, who have doggedly defended the rights they gained under an earlier conservation plan based on sustainable forestry. That initiative received U.S. development assistance and involved the World Wildlife Fund and other prominent green groups.
In a region rife with drug and immigrant smuggling, the question of who best preserves forests gets complicated. Slash-and-burn farmers have ravaged strictly protected areas with impunity, and logging representatives point out that their lands have fared better. But it's clear that they're losing forest too, and Hansen thinks unprotected areas of the Mirador Basin soon will be overrun.
If they don't want to implement his tourism plan, Hansen said, "then we can all watch it burn down."
Tourist development got a major boost in September, when the U.S. Interior Department signed an agreement to send American park management experts to Guatemala. Better signs, better trails, better security and better lodgings are on the agenda.
"Apocalypto" too may draw more tourists to El Mirador, where visitor numbers have climbed from 400 in 2001 to more than 3,200 in 2005, according to the Global Heritage Fund. Executive director Jeff Morgan predicts 10,000 visitors in 2010.
For now, the biggest problem is access: Not everyone can afford a helicopter ride or make the five- or six-day walk. The obvious solution - a road - would open the jungle to slash-and-burn farmers. A narrow-gauge railroad has been studied.
Although the environmental politics are complicated, visitors' options are clear: Wait and see if the trip gets easier and more popular, or go now, while you still have the jungle, and its travails, almost to yourself.
Because the majority of the site still is covered with jungle, most of its buildings look more like natural, vegetation-covered hills than man-made pyramids. But their enormous size helps you imagine how the city once looked, painted the same sinister red as the metropolis in "Apocalypto" but with different architecture. The site is pockmarked with excavation pits, and one small temple has been restored - you can see a huge jaguar face and claws. Unfortunately, a lack of interpretive markers makes it difficult to understand what you're seeing.
The highlight is the pyramid complex of La Danta - at 230 feet tall the loftiest structure in the Maya world, with a base platform big enough to cover nearly 36 football fields. Only its topmost pyramid has been fully excavated. Still crawling with thick tree roots, it looked like a piece of a lost world. Which, of course, it was. I pulled myself up rickety ladders and a rope to see the stunning jungle panorama from the top.
The summer dig season was winding down, and Hansen, the archeologist, was circulating among the roughly 200 workers who were excavating, laser mapping and otherwise sifting El Mirador for data. El Mirador, he told me, was the capital of a society so complex that it may have been the first political state in the Americas.
"These guys were just light years ahead of everyone else," he said.
The morning I left, I climbed the 180-foot-tall Tigre pyramid for sunrise. Silently, I watched El Mirador's pyramids disappear into the mist rising over the jungle.
It had been a fantastic four days....
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Cast a glance at www.miradorbasin.com
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20 SEPTEMBER 2007.- LOVE THY CELEBRITY NEIGHBOR
Source: PRNewswire
Homes & Land has today released the results of its Celebrity Neighbor Survey. The survey asked thousands of Americans to name the celebrity they'd wish to have as their next-door neighbor. Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Presley and Donald Trump ranked as the top three and there were many surprises in the complete, top 20 ranking provided later in this release. Another chart showing top celebrity neighbor choices for people within different age groups is also included.
For all women surveyed, the following celebrities ranked as their top five choices overall: 1) Oprah Winfrey, 2) Paris Hilton, 3) Dolly Parton, 4) John Travolta and 5) George Clooney. For men participating in the survey, their top five choices included an all-male line-up: 1) Elvis Presley, 2) John Wayne, 3) Donald Trump, 4) Tiger Woods and 5) Bill Gates.
There is no question that some legendary celebrities still resonate with the public. Elvis, John Wayne, Princess Diana and Frank Sinatra may no longer be with us but are still first choice for many participants wishing for the stars as their neighbors.
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Anecdotal Evidence: Those participants who selected Oprah or Elvis as their ideal neighbor appreciated their talent. However, they also cited personal attributes such as Oprah's inspirational and humanitarian qualities. Elvis was often cited as hard-working and generally, a "great guy." Those participants who chose business tycoons like Donald Trump or Bill Gates were motivated by financial aspirations. For example, many concluded that "if I had an address next to Donald Trump, it would mean I'd be rich too." Most Tiger Woods fans would tap into their champion neighbor for personal golfing lessons. However, several of the men said they'd choose Tiger for the women in their lives, since their wives were actually Tiger's biggest fans. While many of the men wanting Pamela Anderson next-door claimed they'd "have a nice view from my window," one fifty-something voter from California claimed he wanted to live next-door to Pamela because he "liked her politics."
Top Twenty Results - Consumer Picks For Celebrity/Famous Neighbors
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Elvis Presley
3. Donald Trump
4. John Wayne
5. Tiger Woods
6. George Clooney
7. (Tie) Paris Hilton, Dolly Parton
8. (Tie)John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood, Bill Gates
9. Pamela Anderson
10. (Tie) Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
11. Robert Redford
12. (Tie) Tom Selleck, Julia Roberts
13. (Tie) Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, MEL GIBSON
14. (Tie)Bruce Willis, Martha Stewart
15. Paul Newman
16. (Tie) Robert Deniro, Warren Buffet, Frank Sinatra, Princess Diana
17. (Tie) Jennifer Lopez, Kenny Chesney, Richard Gere
18. (Tie) Hugh Hefner, Jack Nicholson
19. Jennifer Aniston
20. Al Pacino
The Homes & Land Celebrity Neighbor Survey was conducted over a two-month period earlier this summer through "Homeline Callers were allowed to provide only one celebrity name as their answer and could participate only once.
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22 SEPTEMBER 2007.- BRAVEHEART, SPECIAL COLLECTOR´S EDITION
Title: Braveheart: Special Collector's Edition
Running time: 177 minutes
Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau
Released: 18th December 2007
SRP: $19.99
Paramount Pictures has announced a special collector's edition release of Mel Gibson's Braveheart. The award-winning epic is a saga of fierce combat, tender love and the will to risk all that's precious for something more precious: freedom. Gibson, in an emotionally charged performance, is William Wallace, a bold Scotsman who used the steel of his blade and the fire of his intellect to rally his countrymen to liberation.
For the SCE release, extras will include an audio commentary with director and star Mel Gibson (no word on whether or not this will be a port from the original release), "Tales of William Wallace" and "A Writer's Journey" featurettes, a History Channel featurette, as well as vintage interviews with the cast, a photo montage and trailers
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Click on the image to enlarge
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23 SEPTEMBER 2007.- AT LINKOKWING UNIVERSITY
Mel Gibson at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
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Source: The Star
Hollywood arrived at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in a big way recently in the form of Mel Gibson and producer Bruce Davey.
The two paid a surprise visit to the campus, where hundreds of students crowded around them after they had been greeted upon arrival by Limkokwing president Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing.
The Hollywood giant behind such films as Braveheart, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max and Apocalypto later addressed students at the university's Hall of Fame.
"I know that this is an institution of the arts but you have everything from hair design and fashion to animation and film!" he said.
Lim also awarded the two celebrities with honorary fellowships.
Gibson fielded many questions from the floor, and when asked about filmmaking, he said: "The future of film is digital."
And he had much to share with aspiring filmmakers, saying: "You have to follow your dreams. It's intensely interesting. You are here and you have a gift. Spend some time honing your gift.
"Hone and refine what you are born with. You have to be inspired and engaged."
Gibson added that acting and directing was essentially the same job.
"It's more satisfying to direct because it has more impact. It's the same game because I started when I was 19 and that's 32 years ago - and you can learn a lot in 32 years."
Lim said Gibson's visit was educational as he talked about computer-generated movies and directing.
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23 SEPTEMBER 2007.- KIDNAP ALERT
Smoking is more dangerous than living in Costa Rica
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Source: The Daily Star
Mel Gibson was put on kidnap alert yesterday over his new home in Costa Rica.
The actor plans to move his wife Robyn and their seven children to the £13million ranch 300 miles from the capital San Jose.
And he seems determined to ignore official US government warnings that the area is prime bandit country
A State Department briefing claims all American visitors are "potential targets for criminals and kidnappers" and should never travel alone.
It adds: "Local law enforcement agencies have limited capabilities and do not operate according to US standards."
And an American consular official said: "All US citizens should exercise extreme caution."
A business source close to the actor said:"He will need intense security for his family in an area where urban and tourist development is minimal and most of the inhabitants are poorly-paid farmers. Unless they are closely guarded, Mel's family could find themselves prime targets for bandits and thieves in an area where help will be a very long way away."
Mel's ranch spans a densely-wooded, mountainous area in Guanacaste province on Costa Rica's northern Pacific coast.
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23 SEPTEMBER 2007.- THE BODYGUARDS
Mr Asterix and Mr Obelix, the new bodyguards
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Source: El Parlanchin
Mel Gibson has hired a couple of famous bodyguards to guard his family. The guys, who are from Gaul, have a reputation of being indomitable. The Roman Legionaires who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium can provide references, if necessary.
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25 SEPTEMBER 2007.- A MALICIOUS RUMOR
Mel Gibson was not drinking alcohol.
A business partner, who did not want to be named, confirmed that Gibson had recently been holidaying at the Indonesian resort destination but denied that the cocktails he was seen drinking contained any alcohol.
"He was in Bali and he was not drinking alcohol," he said yesterday.
"He was drinking those non-alcoholic virgin cocktails that are made in those island resorts."
Gibson's LA publicist Alan Nierob said he was disappointed that onlookers had assumed his client was drinking alcohol and were trying to sell photos of him relaxing in Bali.
"People should not be so quick to assume things," he said.
"Unless he (Gibson) is there drinking water, coffee, tea or soft drinks, they're hawking misleading photos."
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