Whatever His Position, Gibson Seldom Bombs
Mel Gibson is still on the hot seat for his conservative views on gay rights, feminism and other modern political trends. But he isn’t afraid to take on other, uh, hot issues either.
The “Braveheart” director, attending the Venice Film Festival, answered a number of non-movie questions on Wednesday. One involved French A-bomb testing in the Pacific.
“Did you burn your retinas by watching a nuclear blast?” a smiling Gibson asked the questioner. “Is that why you wear glasses?”
Then he got serious: “I think it’s heinous,” he said. “My kids live in Australia. It’s like a dog doing it on my front lawn. If I could, I’d swim out there to stop them except I’d be worried about… (and here he began joking again, growling low and long) …rrrrradioactivity!”
Cue the crowd for applause. Now cut!
Loose talk
Sam Donaldson, 61, on recovering from cancer surgery: “I’ve stopped limping, and I’m ready to start kicking some politician behinds.”
He still wants to light his fire, even if he can’t see it
Jose Feliciano turns 50 today.
With his money he could buy the whole fleet
So does being an Oscar-winning actor help Denzel Washington out in his attempts to get around Manhattan? “A black man in Manhattan trying to get a cab, shoot, doesn’t matter what you do for a living,” Washington told Vanity Fair magazine. “Now, if they happen to recognize you, yeah, but me with new sneakers on, and a hat, you know, facing uptown? Ha ha. Ha ha.”
And these days, of course, so is her bankbook
Buzz magazine is a big Sandra Bullock fan. “After an era of nude, lewd and rude (women), nice makes a comeback,” the mag says of the popular new star. Bullock (“While You Were Sleeping,” “The Net”) is, Buzz reports, “spunky, virginal and busy with purposeful activity, but not obsessively so. Her hormones are in balance.”
Unlike many who watch, he actually has a life
Chris Carter, creator and executive producer of Fox’s popular sci-fi program “X-Files,” says he lives a pretty normal life. As he told some 2,500 fans of the show at a recent convention in Pasadena, Calif., “I’ve never had any experience with the paranormal - until this convention.”
Whatever, there are those who admire her chops
Actress Jacqueline Bissett is no slave to fashion. “I always panic,” she says. “It’s just easier to say ‘No’ to an invite than go out and search for a gown. Besides, most of the clothes that are gorgeous and sexy don’t suit me. I always feel like mutton dressed as lamb.”
And his fortune read, ‘Today is your lucky day’
Screenwriter Douglas Carter Beane discovered the title of his current film at a Chinese restaurant. “I looked at the glossy (photograph) by me and it read, ‘To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” Beane told USA Today. “It just cracked me up.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster