Mel Gibson Not a Dead Australian Man, After All

Embattled actor's rep shoots down Twitter-fueled suicide and tabloid-sparked moving rumors

By Joal Ryan Jul 19, 2010 6:05 PMTags
Mel GibsonMichael Kovac/FilmMagic

Who says Mel Gibson's career is dead? 

The all-taped-up movie star is being treated like a red-hot Justin Bieber today with Twitter-fueled rumors of his demise. And, oh, yeah, his pending move to Australia.

Now who'd go and believe any breaking "news" they read in a tweet? Well, besides David Spade?     

"i had no idea about mel gibson. holy sh-t . wouldnt have send stupid tweet," Spade posted on his Twitter page around midnight Los Angeles time.

Now, we can't say whether the comic was being, you know, comical or whether he was seriously feeling remorse for cracking a mild joke ("mel gibson says his statements were taken out of context...for 30 straight minutes"), but we can say that a whole lotta people were wondering if Gibson, per the Twitter mill, really had commited suicide.

No, he hadn't. Gibson's rep confirmed to E! News that the 54-year-old actor is alive and well.

As for the Australia storyline? That one got picked up by Twitter, but originated from an old-fashioned newspaper report. Britain's Daily Mail on Sunday said Gibson was packing it in in Hollywood, in the wake of the über-ugly Oksana Grigorieva telephone recordings, and heading back to his native Australia with his ex-wife, Robyn Gibson.

Gibson's rep likewise gave the thumbs down to that thread.

So, it looks like we'll still have Gibson to kick around, which is good because killing off Bieber again and again and again is getting old.

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Yes, hopefully, we'll have years and years more of Mel Gibson's Crazy Faces.