The Gospel according to Braveheart

Washington, DC

We were an odd sight to the young crowd in the pool hall late on a Sunday night. A couple of middle-aged family guys don’t exactly blend in, at least not in Adams Morgan, a hip young neighbourhood in Washington, DC – especially when one of them is Mel Gibson. It was the night before the screening of Gibson’s controversial film about the Passion of Christ. The man better known as Mad Max, or William Wallace, was relaxing in the pool hall after his long flight from Los Angeles.

There was little relaxing elsewhere in the room, however. Women hoping for an autograph, a game of darts or simply to catch the star’s eye began a slow migration towards us. Unfailingly polite, and dressed in jeans and a denim shirt, Gibson kept a careful distance from over-zealous female fans looking for something more intimate than darts or autographs. Having given up drinking and smoking (he has promised to send me his unsmoked Cubans), he makes a strict point of avoiding other carnal temptations.