While The Beaver was yielding some positive feedback after its screening last night at SXSW (Nikki Finke wrote, “the film received what was described to me as a very strong ovation at the end,”), Mel Gibson was turning himself in to the El Segundo Police Department in Southern California. It was probably as unpleasant for him as missing a Ke$ha concert because we were in court fighting a fine for taking our trash out on the wrong day would be for us. His mugshot and fingerprints were taken by authorities, and he was released after he posted 10% of his $20,000 bail. Gibson’s booking comes just five days after he plead no contest to a charge of misdemeanor battery against his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva.
Still on Gibson’s to-do list is to fulfill the rest of his sentence, which he will do by attending a year of domestic violence counseling. He’s also been placed on probation for three years, is required to complete some community service, and must pay a fine.
Jodie Foster, the film’s director and the actor who play’s Gibson’s wife, addressed the audience before the screening and said, “I just have to ask everybody, can you see a film and appreciate the artist for his work? And if anything I think anybody who comes to see the film and understands Mel’s extraordinary performance in the movie can’t go away untouched by his humanity. If there’s a message to the movie it’s that you don’t have to be alone. The truth is that the great remedy for that is connection.” You know what though, I bet The Beaver is a really great movie. It wouldn’t even surprise me if it was just what we needed to make it okay to hire ventriloquists for your kid’s party again — it could really be that powerful.
Source: Radar Online
