A Sydney photographer says controversial actor Mel Gibson verbally abused and spat at her as she snapped him with his girlfriend outside Sydney's Palace Verona cinema in Paddington on Sunday evening.
“I took a photo of Mel and his girlfriend and when I turned around he shoved my back really hard,” Daily Telegraph photographer Kristi Miller told the paper.
"He was spitting in my face as he was yelling at me, calling me a dog, saying I'm not even a human being and I will go to hell. It was non-stop, he didn't even breathe."
The incident, which has been reported to police, occurred as Gibson left the cinema with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Rosalind Ross, who is claimed to have intervened to stop the confrontation.
A spokesperson for Gibson told The Telegraph: “There was no physical contact whatsoever with this photographer, who was harassing my client and his friend."
The cinema is currently hosting the Israeli Film Festival, but it is believed Gibson and Ross attended a screening of Far From Men.
In response to the incident, artistic director of the film festival Richard Moore has offered a 'personal invitation' for Gibson to attend any of the festival screenings.
"Perhaps Mel would like to see one or two of our documentaries about the thriving, vibrant and difficult democracy that is Israel - Partner With The Enemy and Almost Friends are two titles that immediately spring to mind," Moore said.
Last year, the Czech Jewish community opposed the decision by the Karlovy Vary Film festival to award Gibson a lifetime achievement award. At the festival Gibson spoke briefly to SBS Movies about his very public attempts at rehabilitation after his spectacular falls from grace: “It’s what I’m good at, and I don’t want to throw it away," Gibson said.
Gibson is currently in Australia to make American WWII drama Hacksaw Ridge.
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