Mel Gibson’s Holocaust project raises eyebrows

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Catholic actor and director Mel
Gibson’s latest project — a TV movie set against the backdrop
of the Holocaust — is raising eyebrows before a single scene
has been shot.

Gibson’s production company Con Artist Productions and two
others are developing a miniseries for ABC television based on
a memoir by Dutch Jew Flory van Beek, whose Catholic boyfriend
hid her from the Nazis.

Gibson, whose film “The Passion of the Christ” was seen by
some critics as anti-Semitic and whose father is on record as
doubting the Holocaust, may not take an executive producer
credit on “Flory.” But his attachment to the project has
attracted the attention of some Jewish groups.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
in Los Angeles said the project would give “Gibson a chance to
redeem himself from the controversy over ‘The Passion of the
Christ,’ which did not portray Jews fairly.”

Hier said the project would also “provide a first-class
education for his father, who is a Holocaust denier.”

Gibson’s ultraconservative Catholic father, Hutton Gibson,
is on record as doubting the Holocaust, describing it last year
as “maybe not all fiction, but most of it is.”

Mel Gibson has denied blaming the Jews for the death of
Jesus Christ and has made clear he believes the Holocaust
happened. The actor is in Mexico filming a Disney movie and his
representatives could not be reached for comment.

Quinn Taylor, vice president of television movies for ABC,
described “Flory” as a love story and said critics should “shut
up and wait and see the movie, and then judge.”

“I’m not about to rewrite history. I’m going to explore an
amazing love story that we can all learn from and hopefully be
inspired by,” Taylor told the show business trade newspaper
Daily Variety.

Several observers said Gibson might be trying to repair his
image in the Jewish community. But Deborah Cohn, assistant
professor of marketing at New York’s Yeshiva University, said
Gibson may have other intentions.

“I think his aim is to portray Catholicism in the best
possible light and to show the good deeds of Catholics in those
times.

“Families did step up and those stories should be
highlighted. I think this film is not going to address the
things his father is denying,” Cohn said.

The project has not yet been given the formal go-ahead and
a broadcast date is more than a year away.