By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, April 2011
In late April 2011, Deadline Hollywood ran an exclusive interview with Mel Gibson — his first substantive on-record press engagement since the broader cycle of 2010 controversies that had substantially diminished his Hollywood standing. Allison Hope Weiner conducted the interview; the reaction split sharply. Anita Busch praised the piece. David Poland called it revolting. The original FishbowlLA framing tracked the substantive industry-press disagreement.
Then
The 2011 Gibson interview cycle had been built around the early-May release of The Beaver — the Jodie Foster-directed film in which Gibson played a depressed executive who communicates through a beaver hand puppet. The film was Gibson’s first major post-2010-controversy theatrical project, and the broader awards-and-press cycle had been substantively conditional on whether the industry was prepared to engage with him professionally after the prior cycle of controversies.
Allison Hope Weiner had been one of the entertainment-press writers with substantial prior Gibson access. Her Deadline Hollywood interview had produced the first substantive on-record Gibson statements in nearly a year; the access had been the kind of exclusive that periodically reshapes broader press-narrative cycles.
Anita Busch’s praise of the piece had been substantively significant. Busch’s broader Hollywood-press credibility — built across the LA Times years, the Pellicano-survival cycle, and her subsequent independent-reporting work — gave her assessment of the Weiner interview substantial weight within the industry-press community.
David Poland’s revulsion at the piece had been the counterposition. Poland — the Movie City News writer with substantial industry-press following — had positioned the interview as substantively too accommodating to Gibson’s broader rehabilitation narrative.
Richard Horgan’s FishbowlLA framing tracked the Busch-Poland disagreement as substantive industry-press internal disagreement worth documenting.
Now
Mel Gibson’s career has continued through subsequent cycles of selective Hollywood work. The 2016 Hacksaw Ridge produced substantial subsequent Oscar nominations and was framed as a partial industry-rehabilitation moment.
Allison Hope Weiner has continued in entertainment-press writing across multiple subsequent platforms. Anita Busch has continued in journalism and as a recurring source for documentary work. David Poland has continued at Movie City News and across multiple other entertainment-press platforms.
Deadline Hollywood has continued under Penske Media ownership across the post-2011 interval. The 2011 piece reads now as a documented early moment of the longer-arc Gibson-industry-engagement question.
Original report archived on the Wayback Machine.
More from the FishbowlLA archive
- Dawn Hudson’s first AMPAS interview — Stephen Galloway’s February 2012 Hollywood Reporter sit-down
- Hollywood Reporter’s 2012 Rule Breakers — Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and the year-end double issue
- January 2012’s Deadline-vs-Variety time-stamp fight — Mike Fleming responds to Emma Stone and Sundance scoop accusations