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Mel Gibson insulted Winona Ryder for being Jewish

Winona Ryder says that she was a victim of Mel Gibson`s alleged anti-semitism years before it made global headlines.

Los Angeles: Winona Ryder says that she was a victim of Mel Gibson`s alleged anti-semitism years before it made global headlines.
The actress who is making her big screen comeback with the Academy Award nominated film `Black Swan` after almost a decade-long hiatus, said that Gibson made a crude joke about her Jewish roots at a party 15 years ago, in an interview to GQ magazine. "I remember, like, fifteen years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And Mel was really drunk. I was with my friend, who`s gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about `oven dodgers`," recalled the actress. The derogatory term refers to the cremation of Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust. "I`d never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, `He`s anti-Semitic and he`s homophobic`. No one believed me," she added. Gibson has been at the centre of multiple racist diatribes since then and is now facing charges of domestic violence from ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Ryder who was arrested in 2001 for shoplifting, plays a aging prima ballerina in `Black Swan` who is replaced by the younger star, played by Natalie Portman. PTI