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Mel Gibson Dropped from The Hangover 2

Mel Gibson has been cut from The Hangover 2 — and Liam Neeson is in. Gibson had been set for a cameo as a tattoo artist in the sequel, but the appearance has been scrapped due to...

joyce-eng.jpg
Joyce Eng

Mel Gibson has been cut from The Hangover 2 — and Liam Neeson is in.
Gibson had been set for a cameo as a tattoo artist in the sequel, but the appearance has been scrapped due to lack of support from the cast and crew, director Todd Phillips said.
"I thought Mel would have been great in the movie and I had the full backing of [Warner Bros. president] Jeff Robinov and his team," Phillips said in a statement. "But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew."
Neeson will replace Gibson in the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Neeson was cast thanks in part to Hangover star Bradley Cooper, who starred alongside the actor in The A-Team earlier this year.

Phillips did not say who objected to Gibson's appearance in the film, but star Zach Galifianakis said in a Comedy Death-Ray Radio podcast earlier this month that he was upset with an unspecified turn of events on a film he was working on.
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"But a movie you're acting in, you don't have a lot of control — you just show up and vomit your lines out," Galifianakis said. "I'm not the boss. I'm in a deep protest right now with a movie I'm working on, up in arms about something. But I can't get the guys to [listen] ... I'm not making any leeway."

The Hangover 2 — which finds Galifianakis, Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha in Bangkok — started production last month. Gibson's cameo was first reported Monday by The New York Post, which said the actor was to film in the next two weeks.
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It would have been the first project for Gibson since the leaks of angry voicemails he allegedly left Oksana Grigorieva, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his baby daughter. Gibson, who was dropped by his agency, is currently under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on possible domestic violence charges involving Grigorieva.
Calls to Gibson's and Galifianakis' reps were not immediately returned.