Mel Gibson reportedly played with a beaver hand puppet before having sex with a secret lover at his home in Malibu. The actor is currently in the middle of a bitter court battle with his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva after the pair split in April. Last month, it was claimed Oksana had filed for a restraining order against Mel after he allegedly became violent towards her, while Mel filed paperwork for custody of their baby daughter Lucia. Last week, recordings were released of a man alleged to be Mel using a number of racist slurs and other offensive words while arguing with Oksana. It has now been reported the 54-year-old Hollywood star had an affair with an actress called Violet Kowal from July to November last year while he was still with Oksana, who was pregnant at the time. Violet has claimed Mel was a shy lover and used the puppet, which featured in his comedy movie Beaver, to talk to her. "Mel was always very nervous and he would switch between acting like a nervous man with loads on his mind to being like a little kid," Violet said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Mirror. "When I went round to his Malibu home he got out these little beaver hand puppets from the film he was doing with Jodie Foster. "He would talk to me through the puppets saying, `Hello, how are you ­today?` and play around with them before we had sex. He acted like a child. It was pretty weird. And before we had sex he always seemed so nervous. He`d have to have a cigarette to calm his nerves." Violet has claimed Mel suffered from mood swings and became angry when he thought their illicit affair would be exposed. The 26-year-old blonde alleges Mel phoned her in January and warned her to remain silent. "He screamed at me, `Listen you b***h, do you know who this is. Don`t f**k with me or I will make you suffer.` Then he hung up, I was crying and shaking. I packed my stuff and left town for a few weeks." A representative for Mel has denied the actor had an affair with Violet and branded the claims "an absurd fabrication".