Mel Gibson has been accused of punching former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva — and though while in court he copped to slapping her, the actor said it was only for their daughter’s good. Come again?
TMZ obtained the “Braveheart” star’s declaration about what happened on the fateful January night she alleges an argument turned abusive. He claimed that while the couple was verbally sparring, Oksana took Lucia, then 8 months old, out of her bassinet and “started swinging Lucia erratically in her arms, jerking her body from side to side to keep Lucia out of my reach.”
Mel said Oksana’s “rapid movements were causing Lucia’s little body to be flung from one side to the other, her head shaking violently.” He claimed that he feared the infant would suffer from shaken-baby syndrome.
Hence, Mel said, “I slapped Oksana one time with an open hand in an attempt to bring her back to reality. I did not slap her hard, I was just trying to shock her so that she would stop screaming, continuing shaking Lucia back and forth.
“I did not hit Oksana with a closed fist, as she alleges. I did not ever punch her in the face or in the temple or anywhere else, not then or at any other time. My hand never touched any part of Lucia.”
Oksana wants to strip Mel of his right to overnight visits with Lucia. She will be testifying at their next court hearing later this month.
Reunited — kinda
We are scratching our heads over the relationship between supposedly estranged spouses Courteney Cox and David Arquette. Though they recently announced their separation, the spouses of 10 years “clearly have a lot of affection for each other,” a gawker at the pair’s first post-split public appearance told the New York Post.
When Courteney hosted a benefit at a Studio City bowling alley, her hubby was very much there to support her, and they happily posed together for photographers.
“David arrived first, and Courteney and their daughter Coco came about 15 minutes later,” a source said. “They all hugged hello and then Coco ran to go bowling. David and Courteney later came up to the gift shop and picked out clothes for Coco together. They actually seemed very affectionate — David was calling Courteney ‘Boo.’”
No doubt this amicable relationship is healthy for Coco’s sake. But we are still a little weirded out by it.
School daze
Now this is an awfully sad story: It seems those who feared that growing up on reality TV would affect the eight adorable Gosselin kids negatively may have been right.
Two of the 6-year-old sextuplets, Collin and Alexis, have been expelled from their Pennsylvania private school over “rage issues” and are now being home-schooled.
“They’ve fought with their peers, called them nasty names and made fun of other kids,” a source told In Touch magazine.
And there are hints that the stress of filming “Kate Plus 8” with their newly divorced mom is taking its toll.
“Collin had such bad issues that he refused to get his picture taken at school. He’s tired of being on camera,” one observer said.
A source defended Kate, saying, “The kids are going through a very challenging time, but Kate doesn’t feel this is something that should be discussed publicly. It is a private matter.”
Uh, do we need to point out the irony here?
Kitty Raymond is an entertainment writer and astrologer. She welcomes feedback at [email protected].
