Mel Gibson admits he has a temper

Mel Gibson confirmed what’s been obvious to most people on his Friday appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

This was Gibson’s first public appearance since his conflict with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

Eszterhas had been working with Gibson on the script for Maccabees, a film about a Jewish revolt. However, Gibson, due to delays over the script, went into an intense rant against the writer and his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, with whom Gibson has been in an intense custody battle over their daughter, Lucia.

Grigorieva secretly recorded Gibson hurling racist and sexist words at her in 2010. Esterhas’s son recorded Gibson’s current rants when they were at Gibson’s Costa Rica home in December.

Eszterhas later accused Gibson of being anti-Semitic after the recordings were released online.

"You know, I love coming to 'The Tonight Show' because when I get here and you tape me, you let me know you're going to do that up front!" Gibson joked.
Gibson told Leno that his rants were due to his anger over the script delays and that Eszterhas had not delivered a script in over 14 months.

"Was it just you swearing at the guy?" Leno asked.

“Yeah, pretty much!" Gibson said. "You know, maybe you don't know this about me, but I've got a little bit of a temper."

Gibson is currently on probation in the battery case against Grigorieva.