Mel Gibson

He is not, to be sure, the guy we all remember. Foremost, the age: Chevy Chase just turned 63, and his hair is quite gray. He was a big star once, but has been AWOL (it seems) for most of this century. That's why Friday's turn on "Law & Order" (10 p.m., NBC) is one of the most intriguing cameos of the season.

Mel Gibson, the star of a string of blockbuster movies and one of Hollywood's top box-office draws, is going home to Australia "to lead my own life instead of someone else's." The star of the "Lethal Weapon" and "Road Warrior" series says he is so tired after years of nonstop work that he is incapable of making another movie. "I'm going to take off 10 months or a year, if for no other reason than people must be getting sick of the sight of me," he told Reuters in a recent interview.

As a follow-up to his directorial debut "The Man Without a Face," Mel Gibson will likely direct a 13th-Century Scottish epic, "Brave Heart," for Alan Ladd Jr. at Paramount. Gibson and Ladd recently braved near-blizzard conditions in Scotland's Highlands searching out locations for the film. "Brave Heart" recounts the story of Sir William Wallace, who led three crusades defending Scotland against British control in the 13th Century.

Here's the rundown on guests and topics for the weekend's public-affairs programs: Today "Saturday Journal": airs at 5 a.m. C-SPAN. "Today": travel safety; home improvements; chef Paul Prudhomme, 6 a.m. (4)(36). "Evans & Novak": Steve Forbes, former Republican presidential candidate, 2:30 p.m.; repeats Sunday, 7 a.m. CNN. "John McLaughlin's One on One": land mines, 2:30 p.m. (28). "Tony Brown's Journal": entitlement reform, 3:30 p.m. (28).

The deputy who arrested Mel Gibson in 2006 for drunk driving has tentatively settled his lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for $50,000, attorneys said. Deputy James Mee alleged that his supervisors retaliated against him because he resisted requests to remove the actor's anti-Semitic slurs from an initial arrest report. "We did not settle for the purpose of making money," said Etan Z. Lorant, one of Mee's attorneys. "It was a task of the heart. " When the case was initially filed, it appeared to have the potential for high drama if it ever made it to trial, with the likes of Gibson and Sheriff Lee Baca taking the witness stand to address accusations of drunken rants, covered-up slurs and special favors.

Actor Mel Gibson is passionate in his opposition to Proposition 71, the statewide ballot measure that would authorize $3 billion in state bond funds for human embryonic stem cell research. Gibson joined a debate that has included the views of Hollywood stars Brad Pitt, Michael J. Fox and the late Christopher Reeve, all of whom embraced the measure. On ABC's "Good Morning America," Gibson said he was so concerned about the initiative that he called another celebrity, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mel Gibson is more at home on a motorcycle riding herd on his cattle back home in Australia than he is spouting what he fears is rubbish about his movies or his star status. He takes it almost as an affliction that he happens to fulfill Hollywood's requirements for a sexy leading man. "Stardom is a man-made institution that is loosely bestowed on some people," he says. "It may be because they're good at their craft, or it may be for other reasons.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy suspected of leaking details about Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest will not face criminal charges, despite records showing that two calls were made from his home on the day of the arrest to a celebrity news website. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office concluded that investigators could not identify who made the brief calls from Deputy James Mee's home to the founder of TMZ.com or who leaked portions of his report about Gibson's arrest to the website.

His hair is blond, his chin is stubbled, his eyes are wild. And whenever he looks at his parents, he becomes an Oedipal wreck. As Mel Gibson plays him, Shakespeare's Hamlet, a Gloom-and-Doom Dane, is an Elizabethan Lethal Weapon whipped on by vicious hatred of his licentious stepfather, giggly Claudius (Alan Bates), flayed by ambiguous yearnings for his statuesque blonde mother, ice-queen Gertrude (Glenn Close).

Mel Gibson and Eartha Kitt have been doing their share to fuel the still-hot California real estate market. Gibson--whose star status took him away more than once from his wife and children (who now number five!) in Australia--has leased a $5-million compound in Malibu, large enough for his whole family, while he's in Burbank making Warner Bros.' "Lethal Weapon II," which starts shooting in November. The compound has a tennis court, pool and beach cottage.