I ran into Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes HBO after party right after the show was over last night. The party was buzzing with stars from all the HBO shows including Julia Louis Dreyfus, Larry David, everyone from Game of Thrones, plus Rachel McAdams, Oscar Isaac, and so on.
Ricky and I had this rendezvous a few times during his first stint as host of the Globes. When I saw him he spoke before I did: “Have I ever lied to you? No! Because I don’t tell you anything.” He laughed.
He did tell me that the Hollywood Foreign Press asked him to ‘tone it down’ about Mel Gibson. “Me tone it down?” Ricky said to me incredulously. “That WAS me toning it down!” He added: “I didn’t think it was a good idea they asked him to be a presenter.”
Gibson did not come to rehearsal but he knew basically was Gervais was going to say. “He didn’t like it but what can you do?”
Watch this clip. Bleeped out– but what Ricky asked Mel was “What the f– does sugar tits mean?” That’s what Gibson called a black female cop when he was arrested a few years ago.
I thought Gervais dealt with Gibson beautifully. The “Braveface” actor certainly won’t be coming back, that’s for sure. So much for his new image campaign.
