- AUSTIN: Actor and director Jodie Foster on Wednesday defended her choice of Mel Gibson for the lead role in her movie "The Beaver," saying she had "no regrets" about hiring him despite his personal troubles that delayed its release.
- "Obviously all sorts of stuff happened after the film was finished," she said in a question-and-answer session following the movie's premiere at Austin's South by Southwest arts festival on Wednesday night.
"I certainly have no regrets about him being in the film and his performance." Foster's drama was delayed for months beyond its planned US debut last year and had been expected to compete for awards during Hollywood's Oscar season. The postponement came after a series of audiotapes were posted on celebrity website Radaronline.com of a man, widely believed to be Gibson, making a racial slur and sexist comments to his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.
Neither Gibson nor his representatives have confirmed he made the comments but they have not denied it either. Only last week he pleaded no contest to a