`And Friday, Mel will be opening for Jackie Mason at Harrah's'

JAY LENO: Our first guest tonight is an Oscar-winning actor and director. Please welcome Mr. Mel Gibson.

(\o7Applause as Mel walks out,

waves, shakes Jay's hand and sits\f7)

Jay: Thanks for being here.

Mel: Thank you for having me.

Jay: That's an interesting suit you're wearing. What is that, like, an old prison uniform?

Mel: That's right. This is a replica of a uniform worn by inmates at Auschwitz.

Jay: Auschwitz. Like, the concentration camp in Poland during World War II.

Mel: That's right.

Jay: Huh.

(\o7Pause\f7)

Jay: And why ... why are you wearing that?

Mel: Solidarity.

Jay: I see. With ... with whom?

Mel: With Jews. Jewish people everywhere.

(\o7Pause\f7)

Jay: Later in the show, Shakira will be here. And a guy -- how nutty is this? -- a guy who can burp the Declaration of Independence.

(\o7Applause\f7)

Jay: So you made a movie about Jesus a while back. That caused a lot of controversy.

Mel: It did, yes.

Jay: Now what was that all about?

Mel: Well, I had said some things, some unwise things in hindsight, criticizing people of the Jewish religion, historically, for their involvement -- possible involvement -- with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which, now, I do not believe they had anything to do with that unfortunate event. In fact, Christ was Jewish.

Jay: Interesting guy Jesus. I would've liked to have had him on the show. I bet he'd have been interesting on "JayWalking." He-he.

(\o7Audience laughs, applauds\f7)

Jay: Hey, how 'bout Mitt Romney. Governor of Massachusetts. A Mormon. Anyway, they say he's going to run for president. Used the phrase "tar baby" at a Republican fundraiser in Iowa. Tar baby. Said he didn't know it was a racial slur.

(\o7Audience laughs, applauds\f7)

Mel: Sometimes people can say things they don't mean. A thing happens in the brain, or a medication not prescribed to you kicks in, or you're listening to a book on tape in Aramaic over and over and over and can't quite get the sound out of your head, or a word, a phrase begins to take on meaning of tremendous importance, a signal perhaps, a sign to act upon a thing, to do something. Nose hair, nose hair, nose hair. And your sense of what's real, in terms of the physical world ... I mean, just moments before you're saying nothing to a friend, you're saying, you're laughing and saying, for example, "Did you know that tests on bowls of peanuts in bars routinely show high levels of fecal coliform?" and then in the next moment, you're trying to take your pants off over your head or make a car go sideways or believe that the dot above the lower-case letter "i" is a camera. Or say something about Jewish people.