By
Graig Uhlin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Mel Gibson and twin sons take tour of UA
For a little while, the UA looked a little more like Hollywood.
That is because, much to the excitement of "Braveheart" and "The Patriot" fans, actor Mel Gibson and his twin sons visited the University of Arizona yesterday for a campus tour.
Edward and Christian Gibson are considering attending the UA next fall, said Colleen Valker, tour coordinator for Arizona Ambassadors, who conducted the personal tour for the star and his sons.
"I gave him the tour, which was fun," said Valker, an English senior. "I was very nervous."
Valker said that Gibson was "very down-to-earth."
"I never met anybody famous. It was just like talking to any other parent I've talked to. He was being a dad," Valker said. "He is just as nice as everyone says he is."
Valker said that Gibson was impressed by the university.
"He thought the school was beautiful, thought Tucson was beautiful," she said. "The thing he liked most about the tour was when I sang 'Bear Down' in front of Bear Down Gym."
Valker added that Gibson liked the library's 24-hour and SABIO services as well as the under-construction Integrated Learning Center.
However, Valker said that the boys' interests lied elsewhere.
"They loved the amount of girls on campus for sure," she said
The Gibson sons also showed interest in whether UA had a film school, Valker said.
Valker said that during the tour, she had to sometimes distance fans as well as curious onlookers from the celebrity and his sons.
"People were trying to walk up to him and I was, like, 'no,'" she said. "We got a lot of the you-look-familiar looks. He was just trying to be (a) dad."
Valker said she could not comment on the duration of the "Lethal Weapon" star's visit to Tucson, but this is not a tour she is likely to forget.
"It was a nice visit, and it was really cool to meet him," she said.
Graig Uhlin can be reached at catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu.
