UPDATE 6:09 P.M. PST: Winona is calling B.S. on Mel’s denials! The actress doubled down on her story, telling Variety in a statement:
“I believe in redemption and forgiveness and hope that Mr. Gibson has found a healthy way to deal with his demons, but I am not one of them. Around 1996, my friend Kevyn Aucoin and I were on the receiving end of his hateful words. It is a painful and vivid memory for me. Only by accepting responsibility for our behavior in this life, can we make amends and truly respect each other, and I wish him well on this lifelong journey.”
Mel Gibson is calling Winona Ryder out on what he is calling her “lies.”
As we previously shared, the Stranger Things star retold a story over the weekend about Gibson making anti-semitic and homophobic comments in front of her during a party with friends in 1995 — and now he’s speaking up to defend himself.
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A rep for the Academy Award winner shared with Variety on Tuesday afternoon:
“This is 100% untrue. She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now.”
The statement continued:
“She lied about him trying to apologize to her back then. He did reach out to her, many years ago, to confront her about her lies and she refused to address it with him.”
Well, you can understand why she might have thought that was supposed to be an apology…
During a recent interview with the Sunday Times, Winona recalled the inflammatory statements made by the Lethal Weapon star:
“We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends. And Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar, and we’re all talking and he said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’ And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?'”
BIG yikes!!
Ryder added that he “tried” to apologize some time later, but didn’t elaborate on what went down. She has previously accused the Braveheart star of making similar comments in the past, including during a 2010 GQ profile, and noted how “no one believed” her back then!
Honestly we’re surprised she was met with disbelief considering this seems like an unfortunate pattern for the man who was once the biggest movie star in the world. In July 2006, it was revealed that during a DUI arrest the now 64-year-old yelled at a Jewish police officer:
“The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world!”
Just a few years later, he could be heard using the N-word in an extremely graphic and horrifying way in an angry voicemail directed at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Look, we’re not even going to repeat any of it. It’s out there if you need to look.
So while we weren’t at that party and can’t confirm Winona’s story, it’s not as out of character for Mel as anyone representing him would probably wish.
Your thoughts on this, Perezcious readers?? Seems like this won’t be the last of things between Winona and Mel!! Let us know (below) in the comments what you’re thinking.
[Image via WENN/Instar & JRP/WENN.]
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