Mel Gibson is one of those guys whom everybody loves (with those blue eyes, who wouldn’t? although he needs to shave pronto, because he’s looking more and more like Sadam Hussein lately), and he has just given his fans another reason to adore him: he is donating a substantial amount of money to help poor residents of the town of Veracruz, Mexico, build new homes.

Read on for the "official" news:

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) — Mel Gibson, about to wrap up the filming of his Mayan epic, Apocalypto, in the jungles of Mexico’s Veracruz state, is donating money to build houses for poor people in the region.

The 50-year-old director-actor will donate the money through the Rotary Club and Mexico’s family welfare agency, government officials announced Thursday.

Officials said the donation will be used to construct homes for poor residents of the port city of Veracruz and the city of San Andres Tuxtla.

Gibson began filming Apocalypto, which follows the journey of a Mayan hero on the run through the rain forests of pre-Columbian Mexico, last fall.

Like his 2004 religious blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ, which was shot in Aramaic and Latin, Apocalypto is being done in an ancient tongue, Yucatec Maya. The action adventure is set for release Dec. 8.

This is not Gibson’s first demonstration of generosity in Mexico. Last October, he met with President Vicente Fox to announce that he would donate $1 million to help Mexico recover from Hurricane Stan.

Hurricane Stan and related storms left more than 1,500 people dead or missing in Central America and Mexico.