Friend tells People magazine that troubled actor has been in therapy.
By Gil Kaufman

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Mel Gibson


Photo: Toby Canham/ Getty Images

Yet another snippet of tape has emerged in which Mel Gibson is heard berating his ex-girlfriend with a breathless string of expletives and racist and sexist taunts.

So far, the Academy Award-winning actor/director’s spokesperson has offered a terse “no comment” on the rants — though he has not denied that it’s his client’s voice on the tapes — and Gibson has made no statements.

Speaking to People magazine, an unidentified friend of Gibson’s said the relationship with ex Oksana Grigorieva, mother of the couple’s 8-month old daughter, got so bad earlier this year that the “Lethal Weapon” star sought professional help.

“He realized how unhealthy the relationship was and recognized that they were in a bad place and he was getting his buttons pushed,” the friend told the magazine about Gibson’s reported efforts to seek therapy. Gibson, who has openly struggled with alcoholism during his career, “wanted to figure out how to extricate himself from this unhealthy relationship peacefully and calmly. Which is what he did.”

It’s unclear if the move came before or after the recordings were made, but in the excerpts released so far, Gibson is heard viciously excoriating Grigorieva, showering her with a string of foul and violent language, including apparent threats on her life and a seeming admission that he physically attacked her.

Police in Los Angeles have opened a domestic-violence investigation into an alleged incident in January, in which Gibson is reported to have struck Grigorieva, knocking out several teeth. TMZ reported Tuesday (July 13) that the star witness in a possible domestic-violence trial could be Grigorieva’s dentist, Dr. Ross Shelden. Unnamed sources familiar with Grigorieva’s treatment claim Shelden took photos of her mouth the day after the couple’s alleged January fight and that the images have been turned over to her attorney, though he did not report the incident to police at the time because Grigorieva asked him to keep it confidential. Though Gibson’s side has allegedly claimed that Grigorieva simply lost her veneers, her camp says Shelden’s conclusion was that she lost one tooth and had another one chipped. A source told People magazine that the phone arguments were recorded in February, not long after the alleged January incident.

The couple reportedly split around March, and People reported that a custody settlement, which Gibson’s lawyer described as “very generous” with an eventual 50/50 custody split, was signed in May. But Grigorieva, 40, has alleged that the payments have stopped coming recently.

After a tape emerged Monday in which Gibson appears to threaten Grigorieva’s life — leaked just days after he was dropped by his longtime talent agency — the new six-minute recording Radar Online posted Tuesday finds the couple fighting over a Latina housekeeper, whom Gibson, 54, refers to with the racist epithet “wetback.” The latest ethnic slur comes on the back of earlier recordings in which Gibson used the word “n—er.”

The couple appear to be sparring over a housekeeper who works at both their homes, with Grigorieva claiming she needs extra help because of the baby. Gibson refuses, saying, “I will fire [name omitted] if she’s at your house. I will make it known and fire her. I’ll report her to the f—ing people that take f—ing money from the wetbacks, OK?”

While Grigorieva repeatedly denies Gibson’s claims that she’s a gold digger, at one point the divorced actor — who is reported to have made tens of millions or more from his self-financed film “The Passion of the Christ” — screams, “I’m paying my tax money instead of the credit card [bill]. Don’t you get it?”

The aspiring Russian singer, whose career was reportedly fueled in part by Gibson’s money, also complains of financial problems, telling her ex, “You made me moneyless. … I used to have $100,000 a year when you met me. You took me, you possessed me, everything I am. You own me, with my liver and my kidneys and my thoughts and my soul. Everything! My career, whatever it is. Pathetic career. Whatever it is, it’s yours. You control me like marionette. I don’t belong to myself, only to you. I can’t do anything, and I walk on eggshells always with you!”

He responds, “That’s because you’re a f—ing using whore! Now, I own you.” The staunchly Catholic actor later accuses Grigorieva of cheating on him during their three-year relationship; Gibson’s wife of nearly 30 years filed for divorce from him last year. Grigorieva tells him he’s mentally ill and that she knows she has no claim to his fortune. “I’m not the whore and I’m not the bitch and I’m not the cu– and I’m not the user and I’m not the thief and all those words,” she says. “And I’m not a liar. All this, all this lies. All this lies. I’m not a whore or cu– or thief or prostitute or anything that you call me. I’m not a user. I’m not a gold digger. I don’t have any money and no property assigned to me. That’s a gold digger for you? Are you insane? Yes, you are, of course. We can hear that, because you’re screaming.”

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