Alicia Estrada, an Assistant Professor of Central American Studies at CSUN, challenged Gibson, asking him if he had read about the Mayan culture before shooting the controversial film. Gibson said he had.

Estrada persisted, stating that representations in the movie that the Mayans engaged in sacrificial ceremonies and had bloodthirsty tendencies were both wrong and racist. Estrada and others tell TMZ that Gibson exploded in anger, responding, "Lady, F**k off."

The emotional Mayan members were escorted out of the room, and we're told Gibson screamed a parting shot — "Make your own movie!"

TMZ has since updated their story with a statement from Gibson's flack, who says, "This person was a heckler who was rude and disrupted the event, so much so that the event organizers had to escort her out." It's unfortunate that what could have been an excellent opportunity for artist and academic to open channels of communication quickly devolved into an obscenity-filled screaming match, leaving Gibson with no choice but to silence Estrada's claims that he exploited her culture for his own, selfish storytelling needs with a dismissive, "500 years ago, a mouthy broad like you'd be tethered to a stone altar with your still-beating heart high above my head!"

• Mel Goes Ballistic — "Lady, F**k Off!" [TMZ]

· Oh, Mel Gibson, you incorrigible prankster! You've inserted a single frame of a guy in a Where's Waldo suit splayed upon a pile of massacred Mayans in Apocalypto (at :02 in the above clip, for those having trouble finding it), kind of like the gag you pulled with the trailer! You so crazy!
· Well, there go all those fun Kim Kardashian golden shower jokes. A pity.
· John Waters dips into Nerve's mailbag.
· Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell were too big to share the VF Hollywood issue cover with the Stillers of the world, according to Nikki Finke.
· Viggo vs. Pedro!

On Thursday night, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Jewish community leaders from all over California to celebrate Hanukkah at the State Capitol, and while photographs from the event seem to show Schwarzenegger generally enjoying himself, things got momentarily tense when he approached the Hollywood contingent and tried to do a little lobbying for a close, yet misunderstood, pal who recently may have said some terrible things he really didn't mean. Unfortunately, even after joining some of his guests in a dance to show good faith, the Governor was politely but firmly told the best they could do for his buddy's "bloody little movie" was an Oscar nomination in a technical category or two, and then only if the friend finally started showing up to some of those healing meetings he promised back in the summer.

[Photo: Office of the Governor press release]

• Gov. Schwarzenegger Begins Festival of Lights Chanukah Celebration at the State Capitol [Gov.ca.govr]

1. Apocalypto—$14.166 million
With Apocalypto's first-place-but-really-not-that-impressive opening, Disney's president of distribution is declaring the result the triumph of Art over Media Sensationalism, telling the LAT: "They judged the movie, not the man. It's so hard to get noticed in this crowded marketplace, but here is a film that on its face said, 'I'm fresh, I'm creative, I'm different,' and people responded to that." The box office victory might have made Gibson and the studio somewhat overconfident about moviegoers' acceptance of the embattled director, as it plans to roll out a new series of ads this week declaring Apocalytpo "THE NUMBER ONE MOVIE IN AMERICA. TAKE THAT, JEWS."

2. The Holiday—$13.5 million
Maybe The Holiday could have found the half a million or so dollars it would have taken to overcome Apocalypto if it had featured a scene in which Cameron Diaz graphically beheads Jude Law and bounces his pretty head down his front steps like a soccer ball. Clearly, the film was lacking that "creative" and "different" element that propelled Gibson's effort into first place.

3. Happy Feet—$11.032 million
4. Casino Royale—$8.8 million
We admit that we may be a little fixated on Casino Royale's harrowing torture scene (we've been scarred, apparently, and might need to talk this one out with a licensed therapist), but we find it almost impossible to view these results without imagining a gang of tap-dancing penguins repeatedly striking a naked Daniel Craig in the genitals with a knotted rope.

5. Blood Diamond—$8.515 million
This morning, Warner Bros. distribution executives will blame this highly disappointing™ opening on a DeBeers campaign offering moviegoers a coupon redeemable for a free diamond if they would watch a short video about the "irresponsible lies" about their industry presented in Blood Diamond instead of buying a ticket to the film.

• December 8-10, 2006 Studio Estimates [Box Office Mojo]

Deep into Friday afternoon or not, it's never too late to burn a post share a video gem with our readers, such as the above mash-up of the trailers of The Last Kiss and Apocalypto into one, Zach-Braffian-fever-dream about a South American road trip we can only assume was cut short when a Mayan priest tore Braff's still-beating heart off his sleeve. To beef up the Braff-bashing hilarity, we're also including, free of charge, this Onion AV Club's list of "Awful Things Zach Braff Is (Probably) Responsible For," which, at three entries, seemed to us woefully underresearched, yet still managed to provoke some lively debate in the comments section over the relative awfulness of Scrubs. Enjoy.

• BWE Presents (Again): Zach Braff's Apolocalyto [BWE]
• Awful Things Zach Braff Is (Probably) Responsible For [AV Club]

While I won't bore anyone with my review on APOCALYPTO (okay I lied — pompous, over-hyped snoozefest — there), I thought I might as well give a quick report on who attended last night's cast and crew screening in Westwood. Being neither cast nor crew, I can honestly report that Mel Gibson did attend, sans the Nazi uniform and 24-pack of Natural Light. The screening got started about forty minutes late, which, from what I can tell was because Gibson couldn't decide where he was sitting, despite two rows being corded off in the middle of the theater. Walk up the aisle, walk down the aisle. Shake some hands, look confused for what was an uncomfortably long period, think about sitting down, decide not to. Repeat.

The cast was there, although it would have been nice if they had attended in traditional garb — I was thrown off with Rudy Youngblood (lead actor, "Jaguar Paw", who strangely reminds me of an ex-boyfriend) without tribal shit darting from his face. Bizarre sightings of the night — Eriq La Salle, I'm assuming with time to kill since having left E.R., and Chad Lowe, with even more time to kill since being left by Hilary Swank. And no, they were not together.

Gibson's agitated behavior was of course due to the two rows' worth of Jewish community representatives the actor had personally Evited in order to see for themselves how not a single Jew was harmed during—nor blamed for—any of the sadistic deaths in his latest cinematic opus. Sadly, however, despite logging several "maybe" responses, none of them wound up showing up, and a dejected Gibson finally removed the cordoning, upon which the seats were quickly filled by the production's many standing-room-relegated PAs.

• Mayans Worried Impending 'Apocalypto' Stardom May Typecast Them In Heart-Removing Bogeyman Roles [Defamer]

Some Mayas are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Mayans are worried that Gibson's hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.

"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, because we don't know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May of the Indian defense group "Mayaon," or "We are Maya."

Should the Mayan extras in the film find they were misled—perhaps by being told by the director that they were actually being shot for a "ride experience" at Epcot Center's new Mayan Sacrifice Temple attraction—it's not as if they are entirely without options. They could always retain the services of the same law firm that is suing the makers of the Borat movie on behalf of the residents of Glod, Romania, who feel as misused over their depiction as a bunch of rape-happy mechanics and prosthetic dildo wearers as the Mayans might end up feeling about being portrayed as an army of face-ripping, bare-knuckle heart surgeons.

• Maya Indians wary of `Apocalypto' [Yahoo/AP]

The filmmaker and actor, fiercely criticized for his anti-Semitic outburst when he was arrested for drunk driving last July, showed the as-yet unfinished movie on Friday, first at a casino and at Cameron University in Oklahoma, where he arrived in wig and disguise, according to The Associated Press. Then he moved on to the Fantastic Fest film festival in Austin, Tex., where he compared the American troop deployment in Iraq to the kind of human sacrifice depicted in his film, about ancient Mayans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

We're glad Gibson opted to forego the disguise—it would be a shame if his first foray back into the public eye was marred with accusations of yet more anti-Semitic bigotry, when a simple attempt at being unnoticed in a pair of Groucho Marx schnoz-and-glasses was misinterpreted as a tasteless performance art piece callously invoking ugly, racist caricatures regarding Jewish physical traits.

• For Mel Gibson, a New Movie and More Notoriety [NYT]

· The Anti-Defamation League is less than thrilled with Gibson, and ABC already seems to be stepping away from Gibson's Holocaust miniseries project, which has been downgraded from "bad idea" to "What Holocaust project? We haven't even seen a script for this thing that we're not even sure we ever agreed to." [LAT]
· Disney is unsurprisingly quiet about how Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks might affect the box office of Apocalypto, a movie that will cost them tens of millions to distribute. [Variety]
· The Passion of the Christ set up Gibson with generations of "fuck you" money, but the media shitstorm "could prove damaging" to his filmmaking brand. Ya think? [THR]
· "It's a nuclear disaster for him. I don't see how he can restore himself," said a publicist who has represented Michael Jackson. Things are pretty bad when a guy who had to explain the purchase of the Elephant Man's bones and Crisco-sponsored Boy Scout sleepovers thinks you're fucked. [AP]