Gary Oldman defended the prejudicial comments of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin in his Playboy interview, and now the Anti-Defamation League is slamming him with a strongly-worded condemnation.
“Gary Oldman‘s remarks irresponsibly feed into a classic anti-Semitic canard about supposed Jewish control of Hollywood and the film industry,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a statement.
“He should know better than to repeat and give credence to tired anti-Semitic tropes. Mel Gibson‘s ostracization in Hollywood was not a matter of being ‘politically incorrect,’ as Mr. Oldman suggests, but of paying the consequences for outing himself as a bigot and a hater. It is disturbing that Mr. Oldman appears to have bought into Mr. Gibson’s warped and prejudiced world view.”
The “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” star made several outrageous statements in the lengthy Playboy interview, but the ADL feels he crossed a line in claiming Gibson was unfairly punished for expressing bigotry because he lived in “a town that’s run by Jews.”
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“Alec calling someone an F-A-G in the street while he’s pissed off coming out of his building because they won’t leave him alone. I don’t blame him,” he said.
“So they persecute. Mel Gibson is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him — and doesn’t need to feed him anymore because he’s got enough dough.”