MEL GIBSON’S career in Hollywood appeared close to collapse yesterday, as ABC Television cancelled the actor’s planned mini-series on the Holocaust, and the influential talk show host Barbara Walters told viewers: “I don’t think I want to see any more of Mel Gibson’s movies.”

The blows came as the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department released an unusually soft-focus mugshot it took of Gibson, 50, after he was arrested for speeding through Malibu while drunk, with a bottle of tequila in a brown paper bag on the back seat. It also emerged that the sheriff’s deputy who arrested Gibson — before the actor’s now infamous antiSemitic outburst — was Jewish.

“I don’t take pride in hurting Mr Gibson,” said Deputy James Mee. “What I had hoped out of this is that he would think twice before he gets behind the wheel of a car and was drinking. That would be my hope that this would accomplish that. I don’t want to ruin his career.”

Mr Mee added that he did not take any of Gibson’s comments seriously, saying: “That stuff is booze talking.”

The sheriff’s department continued to withhold Mr Mee’s report, although it has confirmed that Gibson asked the officer: “Are you a Jew?” then blamed all wars in the world on the Jews.

The report, a section of which was leaked on the web, has been given to prosecutors, who are expected to file drink-driving charges against the actor before an arraignment on September 28.

The police have been accused of giving Gibson favourable treatment because of his high-profile work for the families of police officers killed while on duty.

There are doubts now that his new movie will get such exposure: ABC is owned by Walt Disney, the conservative studio that has agreed to release Apocalypto, in December. The movie, about the decline of the Mayan empire, has subtitles (the script is in the Yucatec dialect) and no stars — relying instead on Gibson’s celebrity to promote it. Many now question whether Disney will want Gibson to do any publicity for the film.

Production costs were estimated at $50 million (£27 million), paid for by Gibson, with Disney expected to put up the same amount for distribution.

Gibson tried desperately to make amends yesterday, asking Jewish leaders to help him to recover from his alcohol addiction. “There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark,” he said, adding that his apology was directed to “everyone in the Jewish community”.

The actor went on: “Please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.”

He asked to meet Jewish leaders, “with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing”.

However, Jewish groups are still furious about Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, a movie which blamed the execution of Jesus Christ on the Jews — a tactic which, many Jews argue, has been used as part of antiSemitic propaganda for centuries. Thanks to support from evangelical Christian groups, the movie was a spectacular hit, earning close to $1.3 billion.

Controversy over the film intensified when Gibson, a conservative Catholic, refused to denounce his father for making statements that the Holocaust was “mostly fiction”. Gibson has made comments about the Holocaust that some have regarded as playing down the Nazi regime’s genocide. In New York yesterday, ABC Television insisted that its decision to scrap Gibson’s Holocaust project was unrelated to the weekend’s event. But Hollywood executives yesterday predicted that this would be only the first stage of a much wider backlash.