Quote from: Matto

If I was ever in the area, I would visit Mel Gibson's chapel for Mass one day. But I have never been anywhere near it.

My understanding is that you will never get anywhere near it. Mel has sheltered his taxes by pumping tens of millions into it- it can seat hundreds yet I doubt there has ever been more than a couple dozen inside it. sounds like a tax haven.

My understanding is that it is off limits to the public.

It is my understanding too.

Which is why the preoccupation of the opening poster into this chapel and Mr. Gibson seems rather unwholesome.

I've done a little research on the subject and the paper/news trail is that he did get an annulment and "promised" to marry Oksana. IIRC she was learning the Faith and tradition with marriage in mind. It's Providence (imo) that things went south and they never married. I don't know if anyone can confirm whether there was an annulment and whether it was candy-coated or not. His wife was never Catholic so if they did get one, maybe they based it on that. Pure speculation. After so many years and so many children, it's hard to understand how it could be legitimately annulled, but if there was just cause then the years and children don't make a difference other than emotionally.

The church used to be open to the public but when his private life fell apart parishioners were commenting to the press and he closed it down to a select few. They had to fill out a form to be admitted as parishioners. The form was posted online but has since been taken down. I actually came across a couple who were married there not long ago (besides his daughter) so he does open it to others but selectively. Sad that it's gone that way but not surprising. It's the nature of our celebrity worship society. If he wants any peace in any aspect of his life, he has to close the public out.

It's probably used as a tax exemption vehicle as well. I don't blame him for that either. There is a private foundation attached that is meant to fund the church. He is the only donator and makes large donations every year although since the divorce and Oksana settlements as well as child support, they have dwindled a bit. It's hard to believe someone worth that much can be considered as having money problems (rumor, not something he has said personally as far as I have seen) but much of it is tied up in assets and isn't actual cash flow, so I guess it's conceivable. But barely!! I always have to remind myself that such people probably have as much debt as worth just to keep their projects going. They have high overheads.

 

I wonder if Oksana didn't set out to damage Mel Gibson's reputation, because he angered the jews, by his depiction of them in the film, "The Passion" and if she wasn't helped by them in that endeavor.  Funny how relatively little money she got out of it though, but why should they care, the damage had already been done and she had served her purpose.  Well, we may never know the truth, but it wouldn't be the first time a femme fatale was used as a weapon against an enemy.  

Here's a fairly recent video of Oksana Grigorieva, appearing on the howard stern show, immodestly dressed and saying, she'd like to date a jew.  

She lost the second half of her settlement with Mel over that interview. Part of their terms were that she was not to speak of him or their relationship publicly again. Stern did most of the talking but she went with it enough and didn't shut him down so that a judge ruled she had violated the terms and forfeited the rest of the settlement. She still gets 20K a month in child support though.

Her original allowance was 5k a month, until their daughter turned 18.  That's pathetic!  He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars!  Her monthly allowance got bumped up to 20k, after she went bankrupt!  Apparently, all the legal fees cleaned her out;  what a moron!