From being one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, Mel Gibson saw his career nosedive amid accusations of anti-Semitism and domestic violence.
Now his latest attempt to revive his fortunes appears to have run into trouble in a bitter war of words with a veteran screenwriter – including fresh allegations that the actor ‘hates Jews’.
Writer Joe Eszterhas said he had been working on a film with Gibson about biblical Jewish war heroes the Maccabees.

But he claims the 56-year-old star sabotaged the project because of his virulent anti-Semitic views – including dismissing the Holocaust as ‘mostly a lot of horse****’.
He also claimed to have witnessed Gibson’s violent rages and, bizarrely, that the actor had told him he was happy John Lennon had been assassinated.
Gibson hit back yesterday by dismissing most of the writer’s accusations as ‘utter fabrications’ and insisting their film’s real problem was Eszterhas’s ‘sub-standard’ script.
The row kicked off after studio Warner Bros rejected the script for The Maccabees, a film about a 2nd century BC Jewish army which defeated its Greek overlords.
Following the rejection, Eszterhas, 67, wrote an incendiary nine-page letter to Gibson, in which he claimed the staunchly Roman Catholic star owned more guns than he had crucifixes and needed ‘extensive psychiatric counselling’ before he hurt someone.
The writer, whose screenwriting credits include Basic Instinct, Flashdance and Jagged Edge, also claimed Gibson had told his 15-year-old son that he wanted to stab to death Oksana Gregorieva, the mother of the actor’s child and the woman behind the domestic violence scandal.
In his letter to Gibson, which was obtained by Hollywood website The Wrap, Eszterhas said: ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you won’t make The Maccabees is the ugliest possible one. You hate Jews.’ Referring to a derogatory nickname for Jewish people, he added: ‘You continually called Jews “Hebes” and “ovendodgers” and “Jewboys”.’
Eszterhas – once one of Hollywood’s highest paid writers – described how he and his family had stayed with Gibson at his homes in Malibu and Costa Rica, only for the actor to erupt into rages so violent that he and his teenage son felt the need to sleep with a golf club or kitchen knife beside them.
On one occasion, Eszterhas claimed, Gibson threw another guest, a priest, out of his home after they disagreed over reforms of the Catholic church.
He also described how the actor allegedly ranted about John Lennon, telling guests: ‘I’m glad he’s dead. He deserved to be shot. He was ******g messianic. Listen to his songs!’
According to Eszterhas, Gibson lives ‘in extreme isolation from the real world’, rarely going out, never reading newspapers and only watching films – often his own – on TV. He claimed the actor only got involved in The Maccabees because he wanted to counter the previous accusations of anti-Semitism
Gibson hit back at Eszterhas yesterday in his own letter. While he did not address the anti-Semitism claims, he admitted he had lost his temper during a conversation about the film.
‘I promptly sent you a written apology, the colourful words of which you apparently now find offensive,’ he wrote. ‘Let me now clearly apologise to you and your family in the simplest of terms.’ Gibson said that far from being an attempt to battle recent anti-Semitism accusations, the film project was publicly announced eight years ago.
He said: ‘I absolutely want to make this movie; it’s just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script.’
And although he said he was not going to respond to Eszterhas’s letter ‘line by line’ he added: ‘I will say that the great majority of the facts as well as the statements and actions attributed to me in your letter are utter fabrications.
Gibson did, however, acknowledge that ‘like most creative people I am passionate and intense’.
Once Hollywood’s biggest male star, Gibson has been struggling to resurrect his career amid many calls to boycott his films.
He made a slew of anti-Jewish slurs when he was arrested for suspected drunk-driving in 2006, two years after his film, The Passion of the Christ, was criticised for depicting Jews negatively. The actor, who admits to being a manic depressive, has also been accused of making racist, homophobic and sexist remarks.
After he split up with Miss Grigorieva in 2010, she accused him of battery. Gibson did not contest the charge but insisted he was innocent.
Jewish groups have criticised his involvement as producer and possibly director in The Maccabees, saying it would be a ‘travesty’ given his lack of ‘respect and sensitivity for other people’s religious views’.
To read the letter in full click here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ge-letter.html

Mel Gibson has profusely denied claims he said John Lennon deserved to die. And in fact, friends of the beleaguered star say he is a huge Beatles fan and plays their music all the time.
A source told website TMZ, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' allegations that the actor celebrated John Lennon's death are false claiming 'It's not uncommon to hear The Beatles at Gibson's house.'
And that Gibson, 56, was even playing Lennon's classic hit Imagine at a recent function.
Imagine is the song Eszterhas says Mel bashed recently, claiming the Braveheart star said: 'Imagine. I hate that f**king song. I'm glad [Lennon's] dead."'
Mel apparently says he isn't surprised by Eszterhas' false claims in his 9-page diatribe -- because the entire letter reads like a 'bad script.'
It's not the first time the Hollywood veterans have fallen out. Mel has told friends that Eszterhas became frustrated with Mel because the actor-director had been putting more time into a viking movie he was working on, than he did into Maccabees.
Yesterday Gibson hit back at screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for accusing the actor of anti-Semitism, calling the writer's comments 'utter fabrications' and saying he was angry over a rejected film script.
Gibson, who has been dogged by similar criticism since making an anti-Semitic statement in 2006 to police in a drunken rant, had been working with the Basic Instinct screenwriter on a movie about the ancient Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.
Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Eszterhas' script was rejected by Warner Bros. Upon hearing of it, Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called The Maccabees.
Eszterhas wrote that Gibson announced the project purely 'in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism'.
He also accused Gibson of calling Jews 'oven-dodgers' and 'Jewboys' when they met, and even wrote that Gibson admitted vowing to kill his ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, following a bitter public feud with her over custody of the pair's child.
The row kicked off after studio Warner Bros rejected the script for The Maccabees, a film about a 2nd century BC Jewish army which defeated its Greek overlords.
Following the rejection, Eszterhas, 67, wrote an incendiary nine-page letter to Gibson, in which he claimed the staunchly Roman Catholic star owned more guns than he had crucifixes and needed ‘extensive psychiatric counselling’ before he hurt someone.
The writer, whose screenwriting credits include Basic Instinct, Flashdance and Jagged Edge, also claimed Gibson had told his 15-year-old son that he wanted to stab to death Oksana Gregorieva, the mother of the actor’s child and the woman behind the domestic violence scandal.
Gibson, the Oscar winner whose movies include Mad Max and Lethal Weapon did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Eszterhas' description of his 'statements and actions' are 'utter fabrications.'
'Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,' Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman.
'I absolutely want to make this movie; it's just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,' he said.
Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Eszterhas submitted the most 'substandard' he had seen in 25 years of overseeing script development and a 'waste of time.'
But Ezsterhas claims the 56-year-old star sabotaged the project because of his virulent anti-Semitic views – including dismissing the Holocaust as ‘mostly a lot of horse****’.
He also claimed to have witnessed Gibson’s violent rages and, bizarrely, that the actor had told him he was happy John Lennon had been assassinated.
Eszterhas – once one of Hollywood’s highest paid writers – described how he and his family had stayed with Gibson at his homes in Malibu and Costa Rica, only for the actor to erupt into rages so violent that he and his teenage son felt the need to sleep with a golf club or kitchen knife beside them.
On one occasion, Eszterhas claimed, Gibson threw another guest, a priest, out of his home after they disagreed over reforms of the Catholic church.
He also described how the actor allegedly ranted about John Lennon, telling guests: ‘I’m glad he’s dead. He deserved to be shot. He was ******g messianic. Listen to his songs!’
According to Eszterhas, Gibson lives ‘in extreme isolation from the real world’, rarely going out, never reading newspapers and only watching films – often his own – on TV.
He claimed the actor only got involved in The Maccabees because he wanted to counter the previous accusations of anti-Semitism.
Once Hollywood’s biggest male star, Gibson has been struggling to resurrect his career amid many calls to boycott his films.
He made a slew of anti-Jewish slurs when he was arrested for suspected drunk-driving in 2006, two years after his film, The Passion of the Christ, was criticised for depicting Jews negatively. The actor, who admits to being a manic depressive, has also been accused of making racist, homophobic and sexist remarks.
After he split up with Miss Grigorieva in 2010, she accused him of battery. Gibson did not contest the charge but insisted he was innocent.
Jewish groups have criticised his involvement as producer and possibly director in The Maccabees, saying it would be a ‘travesty’ given his lack of ‘respect and sensitivity for other people’s religious views’.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...hn-Lennon.html