MEL GIBSON - GIBSON SLAMS THE DA VINCI CODE

Catholic actor MEL GIBSON has slammed THE DA VINCI CODE book and movie for attacking the beliefs that he holds so sacred. But THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST star has been outraged with the thriller's controversial plot concerning JESUS CHRIST and MARY MAGDALENE. Gibson tells, "What worries me is that people will take this as fact. "I'm not angry, per se, that it refutes everything I hold sacred, the foundations of my beliefs. The Da Vinci Code is an admitted work of fiction but it cleverly weaves fact into maverick theories in a way that will appear plausible to some." The angry star was actually the first choice of DR ROBERT LOMAS' (the intellectual who inspired the ROBERT LANGDON character) to play him, not TOM HANKS. Lomas says, "In an ideal world I'd quite like to have been played by Mel Gibson."