No questions asked as troubled Gibson wins Latino award

Actor Mel Gibson, whose drunken driving arrest and anti-Semitic remarks ignited a scandal four months ago, was shielded from the press as he was honoured by a Latino business organisation.

Enthusiastic applause greeted the actor/director yesterday as he walked on stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to receive the Latino Business Association’s Chairman’s Visionary Award for an upcoming film.

Gibson mostly stared at the floor as he answered questions from LBA Chairman Rick Sarmiento about the film, Apocalypto, a subtitled epic made in Mexico chronicling the decline of the Mayan civilisation.

No mention was made regarding Gibson’s recent troubles with the law. Reporters were kept a few hundred feet away from the 50-year-old Oscar winner and were not allowed to question him.

Sarmiento said the scandal surrounding the actor did not affect the 30-year-old Los Angeles-based group’s decision to choose him for its second Chairman’s Visionary Award.

After watching a screening of Apocalypto, Sarmiento said that he and the LBA board unanimously decided to grant the honour to Gibson.

“Hearing him tell the story about using Latino actors, it was a no-brainer,” Sarmiento told The Associated Press.

“It’s not really a Hollywood production. It’s a film made by Mexico, in a way,” Gibson told the audience, citing the movie’s crew of Latino makeup artists, set designers, and a cast of unknown actors.

He said that casting unknowns was “tantamount to being at the Super Bowl and getting your quarterback from the audience”.

Gibson originally travelled to Mexico City alone to search for potential actors. He cast one man in the movie after spotting him in a juice bar.

Gibson said his film, to be released by Disney on December 8, was a “badge of honour for the Latino community”.

At one point, the actor called himself a “gringo”, slang for a non-Latino foreigner.

“I have the gringo gut. I was crawling around on my hands and knees some days,” he said of eating food in Mexico. His comment was met with trails of laughter.

Gibson made headlines after publicly apologising for anti-Jewish comments made to police in Malibu when he was arrested in late July for driving under the influence.

In August, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour charge in a deal that included alcohol rehabilitation, probation and fines.