Mel Gibson charged with drunk driving

Actor and director Mel Gibson has been charged with misdemeanourdrunk driving, having an elevated blood-alcohol level and having an open liquor bottle in his car following an incident in California several days ago.

The Los Angeles County prosecutors filed the three charges Wednesday,five days after Gibson was stopped for speeding near Malibu.

The actor has been under increasing scrutiny after admitting that he made anti-Semitic remarks during his arrest by police in the early hours of July 27. He went as far as demanding whether one of the officers was Jewish.

"Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith," said the 50-year-old director in a statement released Tuesday.

"There will be many in that [Jewish] community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable, but I pray that that door is not forever closed."

Rabbi gives Gibson invite

One rabbi has invited Gibson to speak at his temple on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.Alan Nierob, the actor's publicist, said the invitation came from a Beverly Hills rabbi, but it's too soon for Gibson to accept.

The arresting officer, James Mee, is Jewish but has said that he holds nothing against Gibson.

Gibson has entered a rehabilitation program but his representatives have refused to divulge which one and how long he'll bein the program.

He has already been tainted by accusations of anti-Semitism because of his 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, which some say portrayed Jews in a bad light.

ABC announced late Monday it has cancelled a miniseries about the Holocaust it was developing with the actor's Icon Productions, saying that it had yet to see a script after a two-year wait.

Sheriff's officials say Gibson was going 87 mph (140 km/h) in a 45-mph (72 km/h) zone on Pacific Coast Highway, and a bottle of tequila was found in his car.Gibson's blood-alcohol level was 0.12 per cent, above California's legal limit of 0.08 per cent.

Witnesses said Gibson had been drinking atthe Malibu restaurant Moonshadows prior to his arrest.

If convicted, Gibson faces up to six months in jail.