Report: Mel Gibson to seek full custody of Lucia

Mel Gibson on Monday will petition a court for full custody of Lucia, his child with Oksana Grigorieva, TMZ reports.

Citing court documents, the website says Gibson's lawyers will ask that Grigorieva get only monitored visitation -- with no overnights. The actor, who has been ordered to pay child support of $20,000 a month in addition to paying rent for mother and child, currently has three days of visitation a week, with one overnight.

The crux of the argument, according to the documents, is that Oksana's public trash-talking about her ex-boyfriend -- Team Mel maintains that many of her allegations are false --  isn't in the best interest of the child.

Grigorieva appeared Wednesday night on "Larry King Live." The interview was taped over the weekend after the judge said last week that Grigorieva wasn't prohibited from speaking publicly, but might want to consider the consequences.

The Russian singer told King that she made the infamous tapes, using an iPhone app, because "I wanted my mother to be able to prove that if I'm dead that this is who did it." She said she was using her opportunity on King's show to stand up for victims of domestic violence.

"The obvious thing that people have asked about this is, why didn't you hang up?" asked King, who played bleeped-out portions of the Feb. 18 tapes.

Oksana Grigorieva tells Larry King: No boozing, yes begging from Mel Gibson

With Oksana Grigorieva's "Larry King Live" interview set to air Wednesday night, we have a few teaser excerpts from her first sit-down since those infamous tapes hit the Hollywood fan. Get ready for the Russian singer to describe ex-boyfriend Mel Gibson choking her and hitting her and brandishing a gun at her in front of her son Sasha, while she held their daughter Lucia, "like a mother protecting her cubs."

So, why did she go back to him after the Jan. 6 fight?  "He begged. He cried," Grigorieva says. "He cried on his knees. What am I supposed to do?"

There was no report, she said, because she was covering up for him.

Also, Larry King really wants to know, "Did liquor usually set it off?"

No, she says. "There was no liquor, not once. He never drank. One time he drank when he was away. That's the only time he drank. I've never ever seen him drinking."

At another point in the chat, after prompting Grigorieva through her story of the fight, King asks again, "Was he drunk?"

"No, he wasn't. He wasn't drunk."

This should be interesting.

Gibson, meanwhile, was spotted silently exiting the Premiere Supper Club on Tuesday in Hollywood, where his son Milo's 21st birthday celebration was going on. Robyn Gibson, whose divorce from Mel is not yet final, was also at the event.

Also, the social service agency Peace Over Violence has disavowed any relationship with Grigorieva after her attorney Dan Horowitz told TMZ on Sunday that she'd be working with that group and another — yes, the other is happening — to help craft legislation to help battered women. (Horowitz would be one of the 42 lawyers who have pitched a tent at Camp Oksana in recent months. You know, the folks who've billed at least a million bucks so far, according to TMZ.)

"We have no connection with Grigorieva, nor do we plan to," the group said Monday on its website.

"I'm guessing it didn't get approved," Horowitz told TMZ on Monday.

Guess not.

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Document: Gibson admits slapping Oksana Grigorieva, not punching her

— Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva at an L.A. event in L.A. on March 4. Credit: Angela Weiss / Getty Images

Confirmed: Mel Gibson tapes were all from the same day

Though their once-a-day release over the course of more than a week painted a picture of nonstop ranting, the tapes of a profane, angry Mel Gibson were all from the same day, according to an e-mail from Oksana Grigorieva that was submitted to the court.

"The only recording i have made were on that night of your rage, the 18th of february, only 9 of them. But, if you remember, you called me at least 30 times and left endless insulting messages everywhere as well as you spoke to me many times," the actor's ex-girlfriend says in the document obtained by TMZ. The document includes a letter in several parts sent May 2, shortly before mediation that resulted in a $15-million settlement offer, which Grigorieva eventually did not accept.

Over the weekend, the singer and mother of Lucia Grigorieva-Gibson did an interview with Larry King that will air Tuesday night on CNN. A judge on Wednesday had rejected Gibson's request that she be prohibited from talking to reporters.

Grigorieva hinted at a Moscow news conference April 19 that there was scandal about to be revealed regarding the couple's split, announced a week before. "We have split up, suddenly and recently," she said at the presser. "Unfortunately, I cannot give you the reason. But you will find out everything quite soon."

She says in the May 2 letter that she played two of the tapes for her lawyers because they and her psychologist convinced her that Gibson and his lawyers would persuade Gibson to try to take Lucia from her -- yes, you read that right. Mel would persuade himself -- and that Team Mel would tarnish her reputation with "false facts" to avoid taking care of her financially.

She explains, "I only recorded them for you, so you can hear for yourself. What you sound like once you are engraged. For you to understand and to help you to change."

Plus, in the style of many dramatic breakups, there are insults hurled at Mel regarding his future ex-wife Robyn Gibson, whom Grigorieva accuses of waging a secret media war against her (the Gibsons' divorce is not yet final). 

"Are you a little boy, or are you a man?," she writes. "Why are you so easily being influenced by your mommy Robyn? Or is it two of them now, Robyn and [daughter] Hanna? You are either ignorant or pretending not to see how cleverly you have been minipulated. Either that, or you simply never loved me."

According to TMZ, Team Mel's lawyers see the letter as evidence supporting their extortion allegation against the singer, who reminds her ex, "If not for these recorded messages, you and your loyal people would have used any dirty trick they could. This is what ive been told and now i believe it. Too much evidence, my dear.

"So, Im sending my lawyers the rest of the messages and i'm sending you a few just to see why they were recorded in the first place."

Radar Online published the first of the audio tapes on July 9, though stories citing their content surfaced at the end of June.

RELATED:

Document: Gibson admits slapping Oksana Grigorieva, not punching her

Judge gives Oksana Grigorieva a 300% child support raise from Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson extortion investigators will talk to Oksana Grigorieva's lawyers

For posts detailing the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth Gibson tapes, click the appropriate links.

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva at an April 19 news conference in Moscow, where she announced that she would perform a private concert to aid victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and hinted at scandal surrounding her breakup with Mel Gibson. Credit: Mikhail Metzel / Associated Press

Document: Mel Gibson admits slapping Oksana Grigorieva, not punching her

Mel Gibson says that he slapped Oksana Grigorieva during a heated argument but never hit her with a closed fist and that he did it only because she was out of control and he feared for daughter Lucia's safety, according to a sworn declaration obtained by TMZ.

"I slapped Oksana one time with an open hand in an attempt to bring her back to reality," he says in the June 23 document. "I did not slap her hard, I was just trying to shock her so she would stop screaming."

In telling his side of the Jan. 6 altercation that's at the center of a domestic violence investigation, the actor describes an argument that started in the kitchen and escalated after he told Grigorieva to get out of the house and she refused.

He says Oksana grabbed Lucia from her bassinet in the next room and shouted, "Stop yelling at me or you will make her into a retarded, brain-damaged idiot."

"She continued to scream at me and argue with me while she held Lucia between us," he says, "literally placing our 2-month-old baby in the middle of our argument."

In the document filed June 23, he describes his then-girlfriend running barefoot in a bathrobe through her son's room and out about 75 yards into the backyard at night, then squatting and screaming with the baby to her chest while he yelled at her to bring the child inside. Once she was back in the house, he says, she refused to give Lucia to him and swung the baby to keep her out of his reach.

"Oksana's rapid movements were causing Lucia's little body to be flung from one side to the other, her head shaking violently," Gibson says in the declaration.

"This was the only way I could think of to stop her hysteria," he says, explaining that he feared Lucia would be injured, and that his hand never touched the kid.

Grigorieva has accused Gibson of punching her in the temple hard enough that he knocked off a dental veneer and of hitting Lucia while she held the baby.

The couple split up in April, and reports of the fight and of tapes in which Gibson rants at Grigorieva started bubbling up at the end of June.

RELATED:

Mel Gibson's domestic violence case goes to prosecutors

Like a good ex-boyfriend, Mel Gibson returns Oksana's CDs (and her music rights) [poll]

Oksana didn't tell doctor Mel Gibson hit Lucia, says pediatrician who says she saw no sign of injury

— Christie D'Zurilla

 Photo: Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson, post-fight but pre-breakup, at the Madrid premiere of "Edge of Darkness" on Feb. 1, 2010. Photo credit: Juan Medina / Reuters.

Oksana Grigorieva didn't tell doctor Mel Gibson hit Lucia, says pediatrician who says she saw no sign of injury

Just days after Mel Gibson was ordered by a family court judge to pay the back child support he owes Oksana Grigorieva, a sworn declaration has surfaced in which Lucia's pediatrician says she saw no injury on the child during an exam the day after an argument in which Grigorieva alleges Gibson hit them both.

Nor did Grigorieva mention any injury during the Jan. 7 visit, Dr. Linda Nussbaum said in a June 24 document published Friday by TMZ. A picture of an allegedly injured Lucia surfaced at the same time as recordings of the actor ranting at his ex-girlfriend; Team Mel maintains that photo was doctored.

"If I had observed any symptoms that indicated injury or abuse or if Ms. Grigorieva had raised the issue of injury or abuse, I would have certainly noted those details in my records," Nussbaum said. "I would have also reported any allegations of parental abuse to social services."

The judge on Wednesday ordered Gibson to pay three months' worth of child support that he'd been withholding until it was clarified whether $6,000 a month spent on Oksana's rent could be deducted from the $20,000-a-month payment. That was clarified to be a no, according to People.

Dad currently gets Lucia three days a week, with one overnight visit. Whether the baby is left with a nanny on the overnights was reportedly an issue at the Wednesday hearing.

Investigators are still looking into extortion allegations against Grigorieva but have given prosecutors their findings about domestic violence allegations leveled against Gibson.

In other Mel tidbits, he was photographed Thursday smoking a cigarette — and can you blame him, given that all this drama was allegedly transpiring when he was trying to quit back in January?

RELATED:

Jodie Foster isn't throwing Mel Gibson under the bus [poll]

Judge gives Oksana Grigorieva a 300% child support raise from Mel Gibson

Picture of Oksana Grigorieva's teeth goes public -- along with reports of dentist's doubts

For posts about the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth Gibson tapes, click the appropriate links.

— Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson at an event March 4 in Los Angeles. The couple, whose child, Lucia, was born in November 2009, split up in April. Credit: Angela Weiss / Getty Images.

PREACH IT! In which Zach Galifianakis does our Mel Gibson preaching for us

If we weren't Zach Galifianakis fans before, we sure are now.

For those of you who use the Internet only for chain letters and kitten videos, let us fill you in: Mel Gibson was supposed to be tapped for a comeback cameo in the upcoming sequel to "The Hangover." Director Todd Phillips had selected Gibson to play a tattoo artist living in Bangkok. Everything was set.

Until the rest of the production — the people who don't breathe the rarified air reserved for producers and directors — found out about the decision and pointed out the obvious. Which is that Gibson is kind of a bigoted, misogynistic vole of a human being who, maybe, should be in someone else's movie.

Now we hear that Gibson is being replaced with Liam Neeson. There's also a good indication of who led the vanguard against Gibson. And the clue comes via a certain star’s interview in a comedy podcast.

"I'm in a deep protest right now with a movie I'm working on, up in arms about something," Galifianakis said during a recent edition of Scott Aukerman’s Comedy Death-Ray. But I can't get the guys to [listen] ... I'm not making any leeway.

"It has something to do with a movie I'm working on, yeah. I'll tell you about it later. It's very frustrating."

That frustration apparently didn't last long. Phillips has since put out a statement confirming that he probably should have listened to his worker bees a little sooner, and now Gibson will have to find some other place to make his comeback.

Maybe Jodie Foster can find Gibson some additional work.

— Leslie Gornstein

Photo: Zach Galifianakis in "The Hangover." Credit: Frank Masi / Warner Bros.

Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:

Report: Mel Gibson will have a cameo in 'Hangover 2'

Jodie Foster isn't throwing Mel Gibson under the bus [poll]

PREACH IT! Mel Gibson's baseball-bat army gets a pro-wrestling recruit

Report: Mel Gibson will have a cameo in 'Hangover 2'

Mel Gibson has signed up to appear in the sequel to "The Hangover," Page Six reports, though unlike Mike Tyson in the original film, he won't be portraying himself.

Nope, Mel has been cast as a Bangkok tattoo artist -- and though he's been accused lately of being many things, "Bangkok tattoo artist" still isn't one of them. The sequel sees the guys taking a trip to Thailand instead of Las Vegas.

Tyson rehabbed his damaged reputation with his comic turn in the 2009 blockbuster starring Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis. Of course, Tyson did say later that he'd taken the role because he needed drug money.

Hmmm. Whatever in the world could motivate Gibson to take such a gig? 

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Mel Gibson in January. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Click and scroll down to get caught up on the Mel Gibson scandal.

 

10/10/10: Celebrity scandals from a spicy year so far

Batten down the hatches -- it's 10/10/10, a day of some sort of reckoning, because humans enjoy these kinds of mathematical patterns, yes? (That said, those who pay attention to such things might surmise that the new moon of 10/7/10 was probably a more auspicious date, in terms of big-picture life shakeups. But we digress.)

It's a time to take 10 and look back on a year that brought us the "breakup" of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the lurrrrve patterns of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the brain bleeds of Bret Michaels, the upskirt photography and "Hannah Montana"-ditching and gay-man grinding and envelope-pushing of an "OMG I'm almost 18 now!" Miley Cyrus, and nationwide auditions for "Glee," which if nothing else revealed an insane lack of reading comprehension among the youth of America.

And don't forget the deaths of Corey Haim, Andrew Koenig and "Deadliest Catch" Capt. Phil Harris, and the arrest of Jake Harris.

But moving forward, we present 10 spicy celebrity scandals and sagas from the first 10 months of 2010. It's enough to leep you talking about for at least 10 minutes -- or you can chat about a different story with 10 different people.

10. Artie Lange, Howard Stern's sidekick, attempted suicide in January by stabbing himself nine times, only to be rescued in time when his mom stopped by to bring him food. He's recovered now, playing his first club standup date Sept. 26, coincidentally one day after the accidental prescription drug overdose of comic Greg Giraldo, on whom the plug was pulled Sept. 29.

9. Casey Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and "fiancee" of Tila Tequila, was found dead on Jan. 4. Johnson's death was ruled to be the result of natural causes including not attending to her diabetes, but Tequila worked it for all it was worth. Oh yeah, Miss Tila's trying to get a sex tape with an old boyfriend pulled from the market now, but the judge pretty much laughed at her.

Judge gives Oksana Grigorieva a 300% child support raise from Mel Gibson

A judge on Thursday ordered Mel Gibson to boost his child support payments to Oksana Grigorieva to $20,000 a month from the $5,000 he's been giving his ex-girlfriend. Hey, now we all know of someone who's getting a nice raise!

Eleven-month-old daughter Lucia reportedly needs round-the-clock security, plus the usual necessities like food and medical care -- plus mother and child were used to the "Mel Gibson lifestyle," sources close to Oksana told TMZ.

Lucia was born in October 2009, and Gibson and Grigorieva broke up in April, with Oksana hinting days later that there might be a scandal. (Gee, ya think?)

The actor's divorce from Robyn Gibson, his wife of almost 30 years, with whom he had eight children, is not yet final, though a report Thursday indicated a settlement might be near. Robyn filed for divorce in April 2009.

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva and Mel Gibson at the Spanish premiere of his film "Edge of Darkness" on Feb. 1. Credit: Juan Medina / Reuters.

Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:

Jodie Foster isn't throwing Mel Gibson under the bus [poll]

Report: Like a good ex-boyfriend, Mel Gibson returns Oksana's CDs (and her music rights) [poll]

PREACH IT! Are we the only ones who haven't been interviewed about Mel Gibson?

Jodie Foster isn't throwing Mel Gibson under the bus [poll]

Is Jodie Foster wandering into Whoopi Goldberg territory, putting her personal experiences with Mel Gibson ahead of the general rush to shun him?

"When you love a friend, you don't abandon them when they are struggling," Foster said in an interview to run in the October issue of More magazine. "Of course, Mel is an undeniably gifted actor and director, and 'The Beaver' is one of his most powerful and moving performances. But more importantly, he is and has been a true and loyal friend. 

"I hope I can help him get through this dark moment."

Foster, of course, directed and costarred with Gibson in "The Beaver," a quirky film with a fate that's gotten more uncertain in the wake of its star's recorded rants at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, with the attendant investigations into allegations of domestic violence (against him) and extortion (against her).

But that's all recent history in the context of the Gibson-Foster friendship, which goes back to ...