Oksana Grigorieva

THAT SOUND you heard was Mel Gibson falling off the cliff. And it was a mighty crash. I know some people think he'd already taken his tumble years ago when "The Passion of the Christ" enraged Jews, or his father denied the existence of the Holocaust, or he made racist and anti-Semitic comments during a DUI arrest or when he abandoned his longtime wife and the mother of his eight children for a Russian chick who'd apparently had a tragic encounter with...

John Edwards ' estranged wife, Elizabeth , and their daughter Cate , 28, are doing the media rounds to chat about the former vice presidential candidate's infidelity. Elizabeth, 60, who discusses the end of her 32-year marriage in her book Resilience , will hawk the paperback issue Wednesday on Today . In an essay for People, Cate, who clerks for a federal judge in Washington, addresses her mom's courage and her fight with cancer. "There are the things she taught without words," she writes, "how to continue to live your life on your own terms when it somehow becomes savaged by people you never invited into it. " Mel vs. Oksana . . . Oksana Grigorieva , 40, who allegedly shattered Mel Gibson 's 30-year marriage to Robyn Denise Moore , has taken out a restraining order against Mel, claiming he's been violent with her, TMZ says.

Warner Brothers honchos surely smiled in their sleep Friday night at the estimated $3 million take from the limited midnight opening of Inception , starring the dreamy Leonardo DiCaprio . And there's more dough to roll in, since on Friday the film fully opened at 3,792 locations. Oh, Leo, we knew you had actorly superpowers, but in this Christopher Nolan -directed movie you actually can steal dreams. We don't know whether to say ick or take a Lunesta and pray for some REM sleep.

Tom Cruise's latest mission won the holiday weekend in a year that has seen some fairly silent nights at movie theaters. Studio estimates Sunday put Cruise's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol No. 1 with $26.5 million domestically in its first weekend in full release. Well-reviewed movies from Steven Spielberg ( The Adventures of Tintin ), David Fincher ( The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ), and Cameron Crowe ( We Bought a Zoo ) - with casts including Matt Damon , Scarlett Johansson , and Daniel Craig - opened with modest to weak results.

Despite all his troubles, varied and unwholesome, Mel Gibson 's pal Jodie Foster continues to champion his cause. "The most beautiful part of Mel, I think, is onscreen," Foster says of Mel's new pic The Beaver , which she directed. Foster, 48, tells People the real Mel isn't that Boorish Neo-Neanderthal we grew to love from Oksana Grigorieva 's audiotapes, but a sensitive, groovy, deep-feeling artiste. "[Moviegoers] will see what an incredibly deep and committed performance he gives," she says, "they'll have some insight into who Mel is as a human being.

IN TATTLE'S continuing fascination with reality-TV programming not being satisfied until somebody actually dies on camera, here's another potentially scary scenario from TMZ.com: On the set of the returning "Fear Factor," a contestant strapped to a truck was taken to the hospital after something got in the driver's eyes and he smashed into another car. Thankfully, an ambulance was there in less than a minute. The contestant was released from the hospital with no serious injuries so there's still a chance to win . . . $50,000.

ATLANTA-BASED rapper T.I. (a/k/a Clifford Harris) was released yesterday, one month early, from a federal prison in Arkansas where he was serving time for a probation violation. He's now at a halfway house in Georgia to serve out the rest of his sentence. In Part 2 of our ex-con redemption series (see yesterday's installment on Vick, Michael ), T.I. already has a HarperCollins book deal and a VH1 reality show waiting for him. Check's in the mail Mel Gibson will pay $750,000 to his ex-girlfriend/babymama Oksana Grigorieva and continue to provide housing and financial support for their young daughter to resolve a bitter legal fight that followed sexist, racist rants attributed to the actor.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen , 51, who last month was declared by the New York media the greatest wordsmith who has ever lived, or will ever live, has been given the greatest imprimatur imaginable. Oprah Winfrey has picked Franzen's latest masterwork, Freedom , for her lil' book club. So claim three booksellers, who tell the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Oprah is poised to announce her pick. Sound familiar? Well, nine years ago Franzen grievously insulted and injured The Big O when he turned his nose up at her when she picked The Corrections for the club.

MEL GIBSON'S not-so-lethal weapon isn't firing blanks. According to TMZ.com, Mel's girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, is pregnant with his child and already past her third month. Mel's estranged wife, Robyn, and their children know all about it. Robyn filed for divorce on April 13. According to TMZ, Oksana is living in a house Mel bought for her. She formerly lived in a house purchased by another very wealthy boyfriend, songwriter/producer David Foster. Oksana's no fool.

SOME WOMEN make sex tapes with their lover's cursing. Others make tapes in which there's only cursing. Unfortunately for Mel Gibson , he got involved with the latter. And the two-minute clip of Mel using a racial slur and calling ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva a "whore" during an argument is unlikely to be the last ugly rant the public hears from Despicable Mel. RadarOnline.com, which posted the recording Friday, says there's more where that came from. The clip includes segments in which a voice that sounds distinctly like Mel's is heard telling Oksana that she is dressing too provocatively and that it would be her fault if she were raped.

In a scathing letter addressed to Mel Gibson , author and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas accuses the actor-director of a range of moral crimes including anti-Semitism, deep-seated misogyny, and an irrational hatred of John Lennon. Eszterhas claims Gibson admitted hitting ex-gf Oksana Grigorieva and threatened on numerous occasions to kill her. "You were raving at Oksana even after you'd reached a custody agreement over Luci," Eszterhas writes in the April 9 letter, which has been posted online by gossip-news site TheWrap.com.

Tom Cruise's latest mission won the holiday weekend in a year that has seen some fairly silent nights at movie theaters. Studio estimates Sunday put Cruise's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol No. 1 with $26.5 million domestically in its first weekend in full release. Well-reviewed movies from Steven Spielberg ( The Adventures of Tintin ), David Fincher ( The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ), and Cameron Crowe ( We Bought a Zoo ) - with casts including Matt Damon , Scarlett Johansson , and Daniel Craig - opened with modest to weak results.

ATLANTA-BASED rapper T.I. (a/k/a Clifford Harris) was released yesterday, one month early, from a federal prison in Arkansas where he was serving time for a probation violation. He's now at a halfway house in Georgia to serve out the rest of his sentence. In Part 2 of our ex-con redemption series (see yesterday's installment on Vick, Michael ), T.I. already has a HarperCollins book deal and a VH1 reality show waiting for him. Check's in the mail Mel Gibson will pay $750,000 to his ex-girlfriend/babymama Oksana Grigorieva and continue to provide housing and financial support for their young daughter to resolve a bitter legal fight that followed sexist, racist rants attributed to the actor.

IN TATTLE'S continuing fascination with reality-TV programming not being satisfied until somebody actually dies on camera, here's another potentially scary scenario from TMZ.com: On the set of the returning "Fear Factor," a contestant strapped to a truck was taken to the hospital after something got in the driver's eyes and he smashed into another car. Thankfully, an ambulance was there in less than a minute. The contestant was released from the hospital with no serious injuries so there's still a chance to win . . . $50,000.

It's true! Prince William , 28, and his bride, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (that'd be Kate M. ), 29, will hang out in California from July 8 to 10, St. James's Palace confirmed Thursday. But they won't be bunking at a Motel 6. The London paper the Telegraph says the Planet's Most Important Couple will stay with Arnold Schwarzenegger . It'll be a treat: Kate's never been to America.   Kate's scent sells out Speaking of the lovely Kate, People reports that scent purveyor Illuminum's White Gardenia Petals perfume, which graced Kate on her wedding day (and which first lady Michelle Obama also digs)

Despite all his troubles, varied and unwholesome, Mel Gibson 's pal Jodie Foster continues to champion his cause. "The most beautiful part of Mel, I think, is onscreen," Foster says of Mel's new pic The Beaver , which she directed. Foster, 48, tells People the real Mel isn't that Boorish Neo-Neanderthal we grew to love from Oksana Grigorieva 's audiotapes, but a sensitive, groovy, deep-feeling artiste. "[Moviegoers] will see what an incredibly deep and committed performance he gives," she says, "they'll have some insight into who Mel is as a human being.

That Charlie Sheen , what a card. Heh, heh . Wants his show back. Ha, ha. And he wants a raise. Ho, ho, ho. Oh, stop! Ah, but it's true. In an interview Monday on NBC's Today , the roistering star of Two and a Half Men, which CBS pulled the plug on last week for the rest of the season, said he'll come back for $3 mil per episode, up from the $1.8 mil per he reportedly has been getting. Over on ABC's Good Morning America, Chas said he planned to sue CBS. "I've got a whole family to support and love," he said.

AS TATTLE generally can't remember the celebrity shenanigans we've written about moments after the column has been filed to the copy desk, we're not sure how putting together a Year in Tattle will work without leaving pieces of our brain matter all over the soon-to-be-replaced Etch-a-Sketch we call a computer. But here goes: Was celebrity behavior worse in 2010? Hard as it is to believe, maybe. Granted, every year Charlie Sheen does something ridiculous and self-destructive, but in 2010 he really brought his A(-hole)

Novelist Jonathan Franzen , 51, who last month was declared by the New York media the greatest wordsmith who has ever lived, or will ever live, has been given the greatest imprimatur imaginable. Oprah Winfrey has picked Franzen's latest masterwork, Freedom , for her lil' book club. So claim three booksellers, who tell the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Oprah is poised to announce her pick. Sound familiar? Well, nine years ago Franzen grievously insulted and injured The Big O when he turned his nose up at her when she picked The Corrections for the club.

Is there a media conspiracy to make Jennifer Aniston , 41, look pathetic? After being hounded for her apparent inability to keep a man, Jen is now charged with that greatest of all female failures: She hasn't bred. Jen is doing the media rounds for The Switch , in which she plays a woman who so pines to be a mom, she decides to try artificial insemination. Jen quips that having babies today is as easy as shopping at Target. "What does Jen want for a baby?" Entertainment Tonight asks the thesp.