Gibson empathizes with Richards, offers support

By Stone Martindale Nov 30, 2006, 1:10 GMT

Michael Richards, has a friend in Mel ..REUTERS/Handout

After walking through the fire he created, Aussie Mel Gibson has reached out to the embattled comic Michael Richards.

"I felt like sending Michael Richards a note," Gibson says in an interview in Entertainment Weekly. "I feel really badly for the guy."

Though he's shocked many faithful Seinfeld fans after being captured on video hurling the "n" word at comedy club hecklers, Michael Richards has one person who feels for his under the spotlight plight.

"I feel really badly for the guy. He was obviously in a state of stress. You don't need to be inebriated to be bent out of shape. But my heart went out to the guy."

The Apocalypto director added: "They'll probably torture him for a while and then let him go. I like him."

Richards immediately apologized on David Letterman's Late Show on CBS, saying his remarks were sparked by anger at being heckled, not bigotry. He also apologized to the Rev. Al Sharpton and on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's syndicated radio program.  Not good enough for attorney Gloria Allred who reps the offended hecklers, and wants a monetary settlement. 

Gibson endured a scandal of his own this summer for anti-Semitic comments he made to Deputy Mee of the Lost Hills Sheriffs station in Malibu, Calif., during his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. He publicly apologized.

Gibson commented on the fallout: "Those are just the headlines: Mel ostracized by Hollywood! Hollywood is what you make it. There is no great pooh-bah up there saying, 'Go! You are condemned!"'

Gibson tells Entertainment Weekly he's not anti-Semitic.

"I never have been and never would be," he says. "But (the incident) hit this fear thing in me. My god, I made people afraid. ... And it was a horrible feeling. That's when I said, 'My god, I don't want to be that monster."'

His new movie, Apocalypto, from The Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures, opens Dec. 8th. It is a Mayan-language epic filmed in Mexico chronicling the decline of the native civilization.

Gibson is confident his Apocalypto, already receiving good buzz, will not suffer from his drunken antcis. "The movie will stand on its own, regardless of any unfortunate experience I may have stumbled upon."