FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2008 file photo, actor and director Mel Gibson attends the 9th Annual Global Green Design Awards in New York. A Mexican governor on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009 said Gibson will make a movie at a prison in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz next year. [Agencies]

The novelty of a new love and a recently expanded family may have already worn off for actor-director Mel Gibson. Though the star’s girlfriend, Russian musician Oksana Grigorieva, has praised her partner publicly, a source close to Gibson insists he rarely has time for Grigorieva or their six-week-old daughter, Lucia,accroding to the reports of msnbc.com.

That hardly sounds like the “hands-on” and “tremendous” doting dad Grigorieva described to Hello! magazine just one month ago. Then again, maybe Grigorieva, who gave birth just days before the interview, didn’t give Gibson enough time before issuing a proper parental review. After all, according to the Enquirer’s source, the distant dad routine isn’t a new one for the father of eight.

“Mel tells Oksana he isn’t raising Lucia any differently than he did his other passel of kids, and that (his estranged wife, Robyn Gibson) really did the raising,” the friend assured.