While out promoting his latest film, The Edge of Darkness, Mel Gibson has been answering a lot of questions about his 3-month-old baby Lucia. Predictably, Mel doesn’t seem too engaged with his daughter, and it’s slowly coming out in these interviews. Where Oksana has spent the past few months praising Mel in interview after interview, claiming that he’s “solid” and “faithful” and great with the baby, there’s some evidence that Mel has rather consistently been avoiding giving any help with the child. A few days ago he even let it slip to Jay Leno that this time around, he’s invested in some ear plugs:
He’s been a father seven times before, but this time Mel Gibson says it’s different.
“You know, you’re more mellow,” the actor, 54, said on The Jay Leno Show Tuesday. “There’s shortcuts, I guess. Earplugs, you know!”
When Leno asked, “Are you getting up at night, are you doing the whole deal?” Gibson replied, “I will be honest, I would say that her mother does the lion’s share of that work, but you know, I support her.”
There’s been another change since his girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva gave birth to a girl in November: Gibson gave up his 45-year-long smoking habit.
“It’s been 18 days,” the star of the new film Edge of Darkness says. “You know, it’s not funny. I mean, serious, you bury some serious anger. Most people do it when they’re five, they get their security blanket taken away. I did it at 54 and I’d been smoking 45 years. There’s a lot of anger underneath it.”
When asked why he was so determined to quit smoking now, Gibson said, “Well, apart from carrying the garbage up to the top of the driveway and wheezing… I have a three-month-old daughter and (someday) I want to play tennis with her.”
[From People]
“But you know, I support her.” Is that as bad as I think? Like, Mel’s at an age where he just wants to pay someone to take care of whatever. Like, maybe if he gives Oksana enough money, she’ll shut up and leave him alone. And the earplug thing? Unless he’s got some huge day planned for the next day, I find the idea of earplugs really disgusting. Ugh, whatever.
While on the red carpet two nights ago for the premiere, Mel also told Entertainment Tonight that baby Lucia “looks like her mother…except, she’s got blue eyes.” Does the baby look like her mother before all the plastic surgery?
Mel Gibson & Oksana at the LA premiere on January 26, 2010. Credit: Juan Rico/Fame Pictures.
Should have invested in some condoms.
looks like he wears hair plugs in addition to ear plugs.
Meh…I don’t think the not getting up at night is a big deal, especially at his age. My hubby never got up at night with our daughter. I was the one nursing, and he had to get up for work at 6 am every morning. No point having both of us sleep deprived when he was the one who had to earn our money.
Oh what a creep! Jerk! Him saying that makes her look even MORE like a FOOL!…Wait she IS a FOOL!
I never did see him as a doting father. Whatever – she can deal with him now, she wanted him bad enough.
You know, my hubby could sleep through more than a year of multiple wakings WITHOUT earplugs, and not hear a damn thing. “Oh, did she wake up?” Um, yeah. Grrr.
@ scorpiogal
You’d think a man his age would be up taking a leak every couple of hours anyway..sheesh.
So he can knock them up but does not want the responsibilities that comes with it. Gee, what a surprise. Dude should have had the slip years ago, this world is already over populated with drunken, abusive egotistical assholes, we don’t need him constantly procreating and adding to the problem.
not a fan of him or his craziness, but it reads like it was a joke on a talk show, not a statement of ” I wear earplugs to block out my baby’s cries”
Scorpiogal – the difference being, Mel’s not up at 6am every day, slaving at a 9-to-5 to pay for Huggies!
I suppose it’s a personal thing between them – for all we know, Oksana may be a very attentive mother to the point where Mel doesn’t get much of a chance to do anything; if she dives out of bed at the first cry, I can see it makes no sense for Grampa to miss his hangover sleep too.
Let’s face it, our culture more or less quietly regards childcare as the mother’s job; in my observation, when the daddy shares the responsibilities, people will say, “Oh aren’t you lucky to have such a caring partner?” to a woman. Nobody ever praises the mother for looking after the kid, because basically that’s her job and she doesn’t deserve any special credit for it.
So while I’d love to bash Mel for being a lazy-arsed misogynist who should have kept his cock zipped if he didn’t want to get up for the midnight feed, really I find myself appreciating his honesty. He can’t be bothered raising the child he didn’t want to have anyway. Better he should say so, than pretend he’s up mixing the formula at 2am for his little miracle with which he is just SO BLESSED.
Um, is my math off, or is he claiming he’s been smoking since he was 9 years old???
I’d imagine it was like this with his first wife as well. He earns the big bucks so she has to take care of all the kids.
I think this whole relationship’s days are numbered anyway. He doesn’t sound all that happy and interested, and I’d be willing to be this Oksana only has eyes for that big bank account.
Sad to say, but I actually knew someone IRL who did this and she was the MOTHER. She told me she slept with earplugs and turned off the baby monitor until 6 am because she “needed her sleep”. It was someone I grew up with and we are NOT friends now. Sickening, but the world is FULL of selfish people.
I read they don’t even live together, so a little hard to get up with a baby when you aren’t even in the same house. Oh well, she got knocked up to get her claws into him and his $$$ so I guess she can’t complain. Careful what you wish for!
He’s 54 and been smoking for 45 years! I really hope that when Mel needs someone to change his ‘Depends’ adult diapers his night nurse has a good pair of earplugs so she won’t have to listen to his cries while she’s out having a cigarette.
I predict they will split before the end of this year….
I think all the talk about the baby (and smoking) is only about him trying to win favor with people for the movie. A “convenient” time to try to help his image that is already buried. He won’t be talking about the baby after the movie flops and I think he’ll be back to cigs next week. I predict he and Oks’s relationship will cut off in two months.
It sounded like a joke, but jokes have truth in them, huh? It was that final ‘I support her’ line– seemingly spat out without thinking– that made me roll my eyes. What does ‘support’ mean, anyway? It sounds like something you say when you want people to bask in the beatific glow of your laziness and self-infatuation. Okay, what did that accomplish? Oh, whatever. He’s probably going through withdrawal or something.
i feel irony in what he said but
he gave a long interview at home for a french tv show .
he talked on his great relationship with his daughter(the older)who has child/children (“now i’m grandfather ….”)and said also for his other daughter(Lucia)it was another story.
I feel he’s oK to be grand father but i have not the same feeling on being again dad :Lucia may be an accident!
Lenore..
Exactly..
Mothers are not even noticed in this society for doing the brunt of the child care. Who cares if the mom is sick, exhausted, sore from chldbirth and depressed, it is her job to take care of that baby no matter what.
Fathers, they can change one diaper a day and they are seen as wonderful supermen. They can sit on their asses, go out with their friends or wear earplugs and everyone thinks it is ok. I could never understand this societies views on parenting.
But, Oksana Grigorieva had a baby with a deadbeat cheater and abuser so she gets what she deserves. Suck it up honey!
I can’t really crap on him for this, because babies cry all the time and aren’t you supposed to NOT rush to them every time they make a noise so they don’t learn to cry just to get your attention?
I think people are just too obsessed with babies and kids to the point that if you aren’t always fawning over your kid, or gushing about it to anyone within earshot, or micromanaging every aspect of it’s life that you are considered a neglectful, horrible monster of a parent, which is ridiculous.
Babies and kids are a lot more resilient than people think, and I think it’s a lot less damaging to occasionally tune out the incessant crying than it is to basically smother your kid with too much attention, because then you get a kid who cannot do anything without Mommy holding it’s hand. And IMO, THAT is worse child abuse than to just let it cry once in a while.
Babies and kids were just fine for thousands of years before this sudden explosion of helicopter parenting, and the whole guilt trip thing makes it even harder for parents than it already is. I cannot imagine being a parent and having everyone in my business, judging how I raise my kid…it’s ridiculous! Mel has what, 6 older kids? And they all survived, so I’m sure this baby will be just fine.
Oh God, where to begin…
So sad to see him like this, but he has no one to blame but himself. The drinking, the mouthing off, the cheating, divorce, that awful Oksana woman- why can’t these guys with SO much money get some kind of hobby that does not involve being a selfish, dirty ASS? But I digress…
I know Oksana did not impregnate herself. I know it takes two. But in this case, she most certainly did set out to conceive that baby because Mel is worth a fortune. Let’s just get that out of the way. Accidents happen, but not to women like this who have EVERY option open to them.
Mel is no spring chicken and he’s got 7 kids. He did not want a baby. Why blame him for that? You are not supposed to have an infant in your fifties. So Oksana has no one to blame but herself if Mel is less than enthused about the baby.
If you are having a relationship or sex with someone and deceive them, you really need to accept that they are not going to be happy, and they may resent you and the child.
Let us not forget the fact that Mel has wealth beyond wealth, and that means nannies. Seeing how Oksana seems to be slim at three months postpartum, I sincerely doubt she is anywhere near a full-time caregiver.
(95 percent of the time, the worse a new mother looks, the less help she has). And with her plastic surgery track record you KNOW she had the tummytuck right away, which takes a couple months to recover from. I have seen someone recover from a tummy tuck and you can
not tend to a baby! They had a night nurse. And even if they didn’t, getting up with the baby is not too bad considering you live in a mansion with every need taken care of. So let’s not make Mel the bad guy here. Not this time.
@Chicken: do you have any children? We’re not talking about spoiled, over-protected preschoolers here, we’re talking about a three-month-old infant. When a baby that young cries at night, you haul your tired ass out of bed and tend to that baby. It’s called parenting.
I’m with you Cheyenne! You don’t ignore a 3 month old baby, and it’s not helicoptor parenting. Thats when parents do for older children things they could and should do for themselves. What the fuck is a 3 month old supposed to do for theselves, their only weapon is their cry-pay attention to it.
People take things a normal average Joe father would say and use them to make him seem like a cad all because they hate Mel Gibson for *insert reason*. Most regular fathers have made a joke about ear plugs or not getting up. It’s not a big deal. If the baby is being breast-fed then why would he need to get up, he doesn’t have the equipment to help out there.
I just don’t get the uproar. It’s a good thing that he’s quit the smoking though. That’s a good thing to do in general and even moreso for a household with a newborn living in it.
Nah, I don’t have kids. And I think Mel’s probably got a nanny…but I see what you mean. A 3 month old is a bit young, but I think I would probably chill out a bit once it got to be a year or so. But TBH I don’t really know much about kids….
@Chicken:
Disclaimer, I have no children (yet), so I can’t speak from experience, but I would think that you get up with an infant. Every book my husband and I are reading talks about feeding the baby at night (even 3am)-the goal seems to be to keep the stimuli down so the baby goes right back to sleep. It’s not helicopter parenting at that age.
Personally, I think in their relationship dynamics (IE, he’s a rich old fart, she’s a young gold-digger), it makes sense for her to take most of the child-care duties. Not that he shouldn’t be bonding with his child, but that is her job at this point. Mel’s the breadwinner, she’s the mom.
However, he’s an anti-semitic alcholic ass so I’ll hate on him just for the fun.
he looks terrible – all wrinkled and dried out. that’s what smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish for years will do to you, i guess. that and running around on your wife and 8 kids -serves him right for being such a jackass.
Um, it was Leno. Not exactly a hard-hitting serious-interview kind of place. Grains of salt, people.
Until I had my own, I,like Chicken Tetrazzini, did not know that newborns MUST be fed through the night, every 3-4 hours or so, because of their tiny stomachs.
@Lenore- Take a bow for saying what you said so well. My husband, a 6″5 270 lb law enforcement officer, takes our 10 month old out in her pink carriage every weekend morning and the older women marvel and tell him how you NEVER saw men pushing carriages many years ago, and how nice it is to see it now.
You are one hundred percent correct in that there is a big fuss and praise galore for the dad who steps up to change a diaper or push a stroller, where its just expected of the mother. Funny how in this day and age, mothers are expected to do this AND work outside the home. How infuriating.
@Chicken: annie got it right. Helicopter parenting is what over-indulgent and over-protective parents do. Like the parents who don’t believe in letting kids play tag because the kid who is “it” will develop an inferiority complex. But babies are another story altogether. A three month old baby is one of the most helpless creatures on the planet. Its only way of letting you know it’s in distress is to cry. The baby can’t alleviate its own distress yet. That’s one reason the parents are there for him.
@tarheel: Take whatever the books say with a big grain of salt. My little grandson, age six months, wakes up at 2 or 3 a.m. (he’s still being breast-fed) and after nursing he’s in a sociable mood. He’s running his little mouth ba-ba-ba-ba-ba and keeps them up half the night. I told my poor daughter-in-law eventually he will be sleeping through the night but until then, being chronically sleep-deprived is one of the perks of having a baby.
@nj
We’re both thinking along the same lines. I suspect the “ear plug joke” was aimed more at drowning out “Oksana’s complaining” rather than the baby. Whether or not Mel Gibson really wanted to have another child is really a “moot point” since she’s here and he can’t send her back.
In the past, it has been emphasized that he does not actually live with her and the baby as well as he’s not raising this child any differently than his other children. I really see “no malicious intent” in his joke because men joke about these issues among themselves all the time. If I’m not mistaken, he did admit to his children that Lucia was an “unplanned” pregnancy and considering the circumstances he’s trying to deal with it in a somewhat “light hearted” manner.
Screaming babies and hangovers do not mix well. Oksana knew what she was up against.
He looks like absolute CRAP for his age…maybe it’s the smoking?
I saw the Jay Leno interview, To me he started squirming again when asked about the marriage question. He was very uncomfortable and covered it up with a joke,
I have said all along she went out to get a child by Mel once she met him. I have seen pic’s of them and in most cases he looks still ill at ease putting on that stupid smile.
I gave never actually seen a photo of him alone where he looks truly happy
I have no doubt that once he realized (after a DNA Test was done) That the Baby was his he has had to put on another act for the Public.
After the DUI incident, The way he embarrassed and traumatized his Wife and Family with this whore, just imagine the public out cry if he dumped this piece of works and had nothing to do with the baby.
Remember I bet you anything if he was still with Robyn and this never happened there is no way in the world he would be taking up so much acting and Directing Rolls again, It’s all about saving Face and $$$$.
This Whore is going to use the Baby at every opportunity to get anything and everything out of Mel.
As for this wearing ear plugs because of the baby I couldn’t imagine Mel living with her 24/7 may be he might spend the odd night over. I agree this will be over sooner than a lot of people think.
Sincerity just love what you said about the ear plugs
Sincerity, that cracked me up! And yet, I bet you are totally right! She does NOT look like the type to suffer in silence! She is probably yapping at him in English and Russian while the baby screams its lungs out and he’s trying to sleep it off! And you know what? He is getting exactly what he deserves. He ran around and he was stupid. Oksana is an old pro at the babydaddy game- I think she has a son by Timothy Dalton, but correct me if I’m wrong- and these things happen when you are not careful about who you are sleeping with. This is a rookie mistake made by a man in his 50s.
If I were his ex-wife I would roll around in his money and laugh like a loon.
watch it – a little more time for everything to settle down and he will marry her.
he thinks its his second chance and he looks happy with her ( which i think he is).
i think her loooong way of hopping from man to man will ultimately be rewarded at the end(she is a real trooper:)). gotta give it to her – she knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it.
@fancyamazon: Yes, he was obviously joking to Leno about the earplugs.
It was People Magazine that reported that Mel and Oksana don’t live together. They still don’t as far as I know.
During the day, when my son had colic, I wore earplugs.
I would snuggle and smooch him and rock him. It took the adrenaline rush off the pitch of the cries and kept me calmer while I soothed him.
So whats the big deal?
@nj:
I really “feel you” on this one. However, I suspect that Mrs. Gibson has done a lot more crying than laughing regarding this unfortunate scandal. My sincere prayers go out to her and her family. I wish them only the best.
Couldn’t have put it better Sincerity, The fact they were together for so long and had Seven Kids, says a lot.
At least he took time off when Milo and Tommy arrived.
Here In NZ there were pic’s of Robyn shown only a few months ago and she looked shattered.
@Debbie: I don’t feel there would be a public outcry against Mel if he were to dump her and have nothing to do with the baby. It would be the right thing to do because of the situation. It would be the closest smartest decicision Mel would show after all of this. Oksana clearly brought a child into this world (at HER choice, HER decision, not Mel’s) to cause harm and damage and for money. You can’t “force” a man to be parent when he doesn’t want to or he is not ready to be one. She is causing him to despise and reject this child and the more she gripes and complains (which shows how immature and childish this woman is) the further it drives Mel away from this baby. The baby is not Mel’s fault, the affairs, divorce, and other things in his life yes, are his wrongdoings but the baby was not his fault and he is under no obligation to be involved in the child’s life, child support yes, of course, he now has financial responsibility. She and the baby have to both be cutoff and cut out of his life. I think Mel would get a lot of understanding on this from people because I think a lot of people would respond, “SHE got pregnant out of wedlock don’t expect the man to help you out!”
I feel him taking on the movies he wants to do is only using work to try to escape and to get away from Oks and baby.
@Debbie, SusieqinBA…IMO the best thing Mel could do to make the most of his awkward situation would be to dump Oksana but continue to have some involvement (besides financial) with the baby. I’ve followed this story online since the divorce news broke, and I’ve yet to see one really positive comment about Oksana. Even fans have said things like “I still like Mel but how did he get mixed up with this ho?” The “nicest” thing that’s been said is along the lines of “Mel’s personal life is nobody’s business but his own.” In some ways this reminds me of the Paul McCartney/Heather Mills debacle. No one, including his children, liked Heather, and everyone tried to warn him but he wouldn’t listen. Thankfully Paul wised up a few years later, unfortunately after he’d married and they’d had a daughter. The problem is that unlike mentally stable Paul, Mel isn’t playing with a full deck, so it’s very easy for Oksana to manipulate him, especially now that there’s a baby. Mel is also so arrogant that I think he’d refuse to admit he made a mistake, even if deep down inside he realized he did. This will definitely be an interesting story to follow…as one steady commenter has said, it’s just like a movie screenplay!
@Uzi, SusieqinBA..
I totally agree with you bot I re-read my post and didn’t explain my self fully.
Meaning after all the damage to his career He maybe thinks staying with her and the Baby is the right thing to do.
He has not been playing with the full deck in ages, anyone can see that, As I said previously I bet he NEVER thought Robyn would finally divorce him. And This has really thrown him for a loop.
I can bet you anything deep down he knows only full well he’s made a devastating mistake. But as you pointed out far to arrogant to admit it.
I also agree he should dump her, but her being WHO she is and with her background, She will always hold the Baby for emotional blackmail against Mel.
And when your not playing with the full deck ……….. I think it’s going to be while before the light bulb finally goes on in his head.
I’m sure in time it will.
mel always has to have a woman…so oks will come in handy, if you know what i mean…of course when he is on location, it will be interesting to see if pics of him and a “friend” don’t show up……he has a chance to be free now, to marry would put him back into the scandal scenes again…and of course the other half that robyn hasn’t gotten on the line…whoa be it to be married to oks and divorce, it would not be pretty…..so when he’s in town she makes nice arm candy, when he’s away, another woman will fill that place….
@linda k Well said.
Just wait ’till shooting starts in Mexico I bet you anything He will not survive the Movie with out a Woman.
If he was stupid enough to even consider marrying the Whore It’s only and ONLY going to end in divorce.
So right How nasty would that be, It would probably finish him off. I have visions on men in white coats carting Mel of to the Loony Bin.
Mind you that would be kinda funny to see
Wow… earplugs!! Sad….
So selfish…
debbie…….well two things could happen….oks will fly down….or we will see him with another woman…..now on to the pr before the movie the beaver….what ever could he say in more interviews???? by the way saw some pics of robyn, she certainly looks aged, i wish she would do a make over and show some life after mel is better.
Over here in NZ there were pic’s of Robyn taken just after the Baby arrived , she was with one of her sons, I have never seen anyone look so shattered, they also had a few pic’s of Mel after the birth, He didn’t look much better either, Just maybe deep down he knows what a huge mess he has created, and Mel Being Mel puts on a acting roll when out in public with it.
Any way The body language always gives a persons true feeling away.
It shows to a degree with Mel.
The Longer he stays with her the more damage is going to be done., This is just one of those relationships you know that is Never going to work or last
Debbie