Glenn Beck said Mel Gibson told him that Jewish people spit on him, called him anti-Semitic and made his life hell before the release of his film “The Passion of the Christ.”
Beck posted a six-minute video clip on his website this week in which he recounted a conversation he said he had with Gibson. He said Gibson spoke of his religious film being “stolen” by “Jewish people” and that the backlash caused him to lose friends — and that strangers got downright nasty.
“‘Glenn, they were stopping me on the streets and spitting on me — people from all walks of life stopping and they would spit on me on the street,” Beck said Gibson told him. “‘I would be out some place nice, dressed up, and they would just tear me apart and [say] that I’m an anti-Semite.’”
A rep for Gibson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both the clip and Beck’s narrative have since been removed. They have been replaced with an editor’s note saying the material “inadvertently revealed details of an off-the-record conversation.” But the Daily Beast easily found the original post with Google Cache.
Although the 2004 film about the final days of Jesus and his crucifixion earned $612 million worldwide, it drew questions of historical and biblical accuracy and allegations of anti-Semitism.
Those allegations were fueled by a police report that Gibson made anti-Semitic statements during a 2006 traffic stop. Among the infamous comments were, “F—ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”
Gibson’s new film, “Hacksaw Ridge,” was well received at the Venice Film Festival just a few days ago.