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Mel Gibson: ‘I feel sorry for Tiger Woods’

The actor says the Tiger Woods affair has been blown way out of proportion — but that it wouldn't do the golfer any good to whine about that now.
/ Source: PEOPLE.com

Mel Gibson, who endured one of the bigger Hollywood scandals of recent years, says the Tiger Woods affair has been blown way out of proportion — but that it wouldn't do the golfer any good to whine about that now.

"I feel sorry for Tiger Woods," the actor-filmmaker, 54, tells Britain's Daily Mail. "Why are we talking about this when we're sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan? … He's being used as a diversion, and it just drives me crazy."

Having said that, Gibson, who stars in the upcoming film "Edge of Darkness," believes Woods has little to gain from complaining about the coverage of his alleged affairs.

"Nobody is without sin," he says. "You have to try to make amends if you can. You have to shut up and move on and not whine about it. And you have to deal with it like a man. … You've just got to accept your own culpability."

Gibson suffered a major PR crisis of his own in 2006, when he was pulled over on suspicion of DUI in California, and reportedly made anti-Semitic comments during his arrest. He later apologized, pleaded no contest and received three years' probation.

In the new interview, Gibson says he's been sober now for 3 1/2 years. "It's cool," he says. "But I put some time together before that — one time it was eight years, one time it was five years. I have to be vigilant about these things or it will creep back in."

He also takes responsibility for the failure of his marriage. He and wife Robyn separated in 2006 and were officially divorced in 2009, after seven children and 28 years of marriage.

"When all's said and done, I did a pretty good hatchet job on my marriage," Gibson says. "I'm to blame, if you're inclined to judge."

Gibson is now in a relationship with musician Oksana Grigorieva, with whom he has a baby girl.