BREAKING NEWS… Mel Gibson won’t be appearing in The Hangover Part II despite web reports he’d play a tattoo artist in the Todd Phillips-directed pic. Warner Bros and its financing partner Legendary Pictures released a statement from Phillips. “I thought Mel would have been great in the movie and I had the full backing of Jeff Robinov and his team. But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew,” Phillips said.

I think the world of Phillips, but I didn’t find it admirable when WME dropped Gibson as a client, and I think this development is disappointing. Mike Tyson, who was convicted or rape and served time for it, can be in The Hangover, but Gibson can’t, because he made an anti-Semitic remark during a DUI arrest and had some scary voice mails bared against his wishes? Stars still flock to work with Roman Polanski, even though he can’t make movies in the U.S. because he fled after admittedly having a sexual encounter with a 13-year old girl. Clearly, Gibson has been his own worst enemy, but as a director of films like Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, there are few better.