Mel Gibson has an extensive interview in the latest Hello! Magazine, and yeah… he’s still pretty f-cking crazy. Sure, some of it is sweet, I guess. When discussing his 3-month old daughter Lucia, he describes re-learning how to change diapers as “like riding a bicycle.” Of course, he also talks about sleeping with a gun. Ugh. This piece is really long, and I don’t want to spend all day transcribing it, so here are some the highlights:

On baby Lucia and being a father again: “There’s no gift like the gift of a young life… I have a phenomenal experience with my baby daughter, and I also have a phenomenal experience with my 30-year-old daughter and my grandchildren. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over the fact that there is a little life in front of me, staring with complete innocence and a total angelic blamelessness.”

On alcohol revealing all truths: “I’ve told some whoppers when I’ve been loaded.”

On the anti-Semitic “rant”: “It’s said that I went into a rant, but I think it went on for about five words. I was drunk. It just turned into a big thing. I apologized profusely – not once but three times. So what’s the problem? It’s four years ago. Do I need to apologize again?”

On politics: “People think that I’m a Republican conservative type, and I’m not.”

On going back to acting: “It’s more lucrative. It’s fun. It’s my first love. I took time away – I felt that I was stale – and I came back and I feel like some kind of maturation happened.”

On whether his kids want to be actors or celebrities: “No, none of them. Bill Murray once said, ‘For those who want wealth and fame, try wealth and see if that doesn’t cover it.’ They’re like, ‘You know what? The fame thing isn’t so hot.’”

On not having bodyguards: “I did for a while but it’s a drag, you know? If your number’s up, it’s up. If I’m lying in bed and somebody come into my room, I’ll either wake up or I won’t. And I’ll either hit ‘em with my big stick that I’ve got or my gun. Or they’ll hit me.”

Does Mel really have a gun? “In this day and age, you’ve got to be tooled up. Absolutely. Of course!”

[From Hello! Magazine, print edition, February 1, 2010]

Okay, so Mel has a gun. But does he sleep with it? I think he’s saying that he sleeps with it. I don’t really have a problem with guns – I have one in the house, and I grew up in the South (big Southern gun culture), where I still live, for goodness sake. But I don’t sleep with guns. Oksana must think to herself everyday, “What in God’s name did I get myself into?” And Robyn must be thinking every day, “Haha, sucker!”

The other thing that struck me was Mel’s answer to the question about anti-Semitism. I really do think that those “five words” he said about “the Jews being responsible for all the wars” and “You’re a Jew right?” (hmm… 11 words?) were how he honestly felt/feels. And I think the only thing he’s sorry for is that his feelings and thoughts are now a part of public record. But whatever, I’m not asking for him to make another half-assed public apology. He wouldn’t mean it, and sometimes those are the breaks. Sometimes a dude is an anti-Semite. It sucks, but at least he’s not out there trying to convince us that he’s now been “converted” and he’s totally cool with Jews. Because we would see right through that, and for some reason, I think that would offend me more.

Here are some nice photos of Mel at the Help For Haiti Now telethon on Friday: