Liam Neeson has replaced Mel Gibson in The Hangover 2, after the latter was blackballed by the Hangover cast in the fallout from Pack of N-Words Gate.  To be fair, if he didn’t want to get blackballed, he probably shouldn’t have dressed like that. Neeson will play the role of “deranged tattoo artist” originally slated for Gibson, which makes sense, because Neeson brings a similar level of gravitas, and considering his recent movie choices, he’d probably lick the floor of a peep show if you gave him five bucks and told him you were filming it.

Director Todd Phillips recently spoke about Gibson’s firing to our buddy awkward Josh over at MTV, saying he was surprised by the cast and the public’s “lack of empathy”.  Mel figures it’s probably just something they learned from the wetbacks.

“I was surprised in some way by the reaction, because I think in some way we have, especially in Hollywood, empathy for people who have struggled with alcoholism.”
“We just had a long talk about it, I explained it,” Phillips said. “He certainly understood, you know. He wasn’t happy, but he certainly wasn’t upset, I mean, it just was kind of a bummer because I think he understood the intention of the casting and the role.”
Phillips told MTV that despite the actor change-up, the role has remained completely the same because Gibson was never intended to play a version of himself the way Mike Tyson did in the first “Hangover” film.
“It was very different. [Gibson] was coming in to add a little bit of weight to the situation that unfolds in Bangkok, so we just needed an actor that brings weight. I think Mel and Liam, and there are probably four other guys in that age range that sort of bring that gravitas,” he said.

That interview is after the jump, along with some “spoilery” pictures from The Hangover 2.  In any case, this certainly marks the first time in history an Irishman was hired for being the least racist.

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Not to give too much press to the competition (or are they colleagues? Eh…), but Todd Phillips recently did an interview with Movieline, and things got a little… awkward.  And by that, I mean he told them he hated their website before the interview even began.

Thanks for taking the time to do this.
This is for Movieline?

Yes.
This website’s the worst, but, all right, let’s do it.

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Before I report this, be advised that it’s highly possible that this is just TMZ trying to milk a big story and not really news. It’s hard to tell if “unnamed source” is code for “a person who would know” or just “some stuff we read on teh internetz.”

Multiple sources connected with the production tell TMZ … director Todd Phillips cast Mel in the role of a tattoo artist a month ago and that the entire cast and crew knew about it and were simpatico.
The problem came three days ago, when the story leaked.  Our sources say the friends of some of the cast and crew started putting pressure on them to lodge sudden, last-minute displeasure with Phillips’ choice.
Our sources say some of the production people became belatedly upset because they were getting so much crap from friends, so they began objecting. One of the loudest, we’re told, was Zach Galifianakis.
There were other people in the cast and crew who were also making noise about walking off the set if Mel showed up.  Our sources say Bradley Cooper was not among the group who complained. [TMZ]

As a quick fact check, the Mel Gibson cameo news broke around October 17th – 18th.  The news that Galifianakis was in “deep protest” over it hit the 19th.  HOWEVER, that protest story was based on something Galifianakis said on a Comedy Death Ray Podcast, which was recorded on the 13th or earlier.  Not mentioning Gibson by name, that was when Galifianakis said:

“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.”

Since Galifianakis brought it up before the news broke, to say it was only after that the cast started complaining would seem to be false. And again, maybe the complaint was more that the bit wasn’t funny than because they were worried about offending Vegas sluts and packs of N-words.  We don’t know. It’s possible Brad Cooper was the only non-hypocrite. His deep blue eyes and masculine figure make me want to believe that.  However, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever trust a guy named “Brad.”  See this? Logic. I could be a TV judge.  (*waits for fist bump from sassy black bailiff*)

It was only a couple days ago that the story hit that Zach Galifianakis was “in deep protest” over something in Hangover 2.  A few sites speculated that he might be upset about Mel Gibson’s cameo role.  That seemed a little premature to me, and I don’t do speculation unless I have a really good picture of a doggy to go with it.  Well today it seems that they were probably right, as the fallout from pack of N-words gate continues.

Mel Gibson has been cut from “The Hangover 2″ because the cast was pissed at the notion he’d be in the flick. TMZ has been hearing about the discontent among cast members all day.  We’ve been told Mel had been cut from the movie.
Warner Bros. went radio silence for most of the day and finally surfaced, saying through director Todd Phillips, “I thought Mel would have been great in the movie and I had the full backing of Jeff Robinov and his team.  But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew.”

We’ve known Mel Gibson is kind of crazy for a long time, right?  Remember that whole movie he made about the Jews killing Jesus?  My point is, he might be racist and is almost certainly crazy, but that doesn’t mean he was bad at his job.  It seems a little hypocritical not to work with him. You want to refuse working with anyone who might be racist or sexist?  Good luck finding a construction worker.

I know this makes me a Nazi sympathizer or whatever (and I apologize for the icky sincerity here), but I don’t think you should get to eavesdrop on a private conversation and then judge a person based on what you hear. (Update) As someone just pointed out on Twitter, Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist, and no one seemed to have a problem with working with him on the first movie.  This smacks of a phony PR move, and until Mel Gibson is actually proven to have DONE something, and not just said some naughty words, blackballing the guy is worse than anything he’s actually done.  Sorry, I’ll go back to making silly Photoshops now.

Zach Galifianakis isn’t your usual yuk-yuk comedian, which is part of what makes him so funny.  Like a lot of great comedians, he seems to have a depressive, perfectionist streak.  You’d think that could cause some conflicts when you become a big star in Hollywood, which is largely run by d-bags who don’t know whether something’s funny until the test audience laughs.  According to a recent Galifianakis appearance on the comedy death-ray podcast, he may be in the midst of a conflict on the Hangover 2 set.  Here’s what he said, as transcribed by Vulture:

“But a movie you’re acting in, you don’t have a lot of control — you just show up and vomit your lines out. 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.” Galifianakis cut host Scott Aukerman off with an abrupt warning sound as the host began to mention the film’s title, but after Aukerman pressed, “I know you’re filming The Hhhhhhhh … ” Galifianakis admitted, “It has something to do with a movie I’m working on, yeah. I’ll tell you about it later. It’s very frustrating.”

Just to add smoke to the non-fire here, Galifianakis also had this to say about working on Due Date, another Todd Phillips movie:

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