Mel Gibson: What A Nice Fella

[sp1814]

Has anyone actually read what Mel Gibson 'allegedly' said to those arresting officers when he was pulled over the other day?

[kipchik]

yep,,,,,,whats your point??

[sp1814]

I can't find details of what he said...only general office gossip. I've known for a number of years that he's a bit nasty, now I want to find out exactly how nasty.

[sp1814]

So if you have a link Kipchik - could you please post it.

Cheers.

[metagirl]

http://www.slate.com/id/2146842/entry/2146843/ nav/tap1/

for bits and pieces.

[kipchik]

I was watching the news today,some woman stating what he said,i always thought of him as a decent family man,happily married and that this was a one off incident,,,was i wrong???

[noxlumos]

He's always been well known for backing up his nut job father whose very keen to say that the holocaust never happened. As a fundamental Catholic with very odd ideas about bringing up his own kids he's always been peculiar but generally appreciates that it's not good for his image so "acts normal" most of the time.
However you know the old saying
"
Drunks and children tell the truth..."

[kipchik]

Oh my god,i pictured him as a doting father and hubby,i actually envied his wife,well bl00dy hell,never knew that!

[Lonnie]

Apart from being anti Jewish, he's also very anti English.

[violetblue]

He's also a sh1te actor and a well known fruitcake.

[Don Quixote]

go to:

http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/28/gibsons-anti-sem itic-tirade-alleged-cover-up/

[sp1814]

A mate of mine worked on Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet (production staff). He told me that Mel's pretty homophbic and racist too.

Homophobic, racist and now anti-semitic.

It's like he's going for the royal flush.

[crete]

will be interesting to see if thid incident will ruin his career as an actor and producer.

[andy-hughes]

I find the 'damage limitation' speech, asking the Jewish people to help him over this little hiccup to be morally bankrupt.

What's wrong with simply admitting that he was too drunk to drive, or even think straight, he was obnoxious, racist, sexist, and generally dreadfully behaved. 'Fess up, and get over it Mr Gibson.

I'm a great believer that an artist's work should be judged separately from his behaviour and attitudes as an individual. If Mr Gibson is frightened of the damage to his public profile, he should consider that most people can accept an error and an apology, but cringing and wailing is really rather repugnant is somoene old enough, and certainly rich enough, to know better.

[Clanad]

But, andy, that's exactly what he did the first time he opened his mouth after the incident. Taking no sides, I would only say the review of his first comments indicates a person that is, perhaps, trying to come to grips with his alcoholism and behavior when sloshing drunk. I find it revealing that, on certain Topic's within this site, many contributors remark on their actions when drunk and, for the most part, others simply find it amusing or entertaining.
Here's Gibson's first remarks: "The actor and "The Passion of the Christ" director also apologized for what he said were "despicable" statements he made to the deputies who arrested him early Friday on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested," he said in a statement issued by his publicist. "I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse."

He said he was taking "necessary steps to ensure my return to health".

In the scheme of things is this not simply the public's applauding the failure of another human being and gleefully pointing their fingers? Albeit, a well known one? Let's all pretend we know exactly what he thinks when he's sober, based on the balderdash he roars with a bottle of Tequila under his belt.
Alcohol is not a truth serum, of course; it just makes you stupid (or more stupid) when taken to excess. There is no empirical evidence that drunks are any more truthful than sober people. It's an old wives' tale that alcohol opens a window on one's soul. Alas, it's a tale some people would just love to believe. Maybe Mel Gibson is a closet Jew-hater, and maybe he isn't. But pretending to learn a person's true character based on what he says while drunk and handcuffed in the backseat of a police car is absurd. (With thanks to

[andy-hughes]

Hi Clanad - thanks for the clarification - I was not aware of Mr Gibson's comments at the time of his arrest, so fair play to him - he has acknowledged his behaviour and that should be an end to the matter.

I just have a problem with his alleged 'appeal' to the Jewish people to help him, when, even if he is not happy to refute his father's vocifororus Holocaust denials, he could at least publicly distance himself from them. To fail to do so, as a 'public figure' gives credence to the argument that he agrees with his father's views. If he does, that's his point of view, to which he is entitled, but to call on the Jewish people to help him with his attitude when it looks like his career may be taking a dive looks like cynical opportunism which he could correct, but appears unwilling so to do.

[noxlumos]

Alcohol is well known for it's ability to break down one's inhibitions, hence all of the "you're my bestest friend in all the world", "I hate you you b*****d" speeches that you get from drunks and the amount of people who feel the need to jump in fountains naked.Therefore I'll disagree with clanad yet again ( big surprise that...) and say that I think you are very much more able to get the gist of a person's real personality if you watch them whilst they are drunk, and as Andy says if he had the sense to disasociate himself from his father's absurd views when sober, one might feel you had more of a point, but since he does not, one's left with the overall impression that he is exactly as he appears to be when drunk, a right wing, anti-semitic, patriot at any cost, religious bigot.

[violetblue]

What's drink got to do with it? Whether a person is drunk or not, drink doesn't turn them into racists etc, it just loosens inhibitions. If he came out with offensive remarks it's because he thinks them, and drink just loosened his tongue.

[Clanad]

Then, why do our courts not allow witnesses to offer their solemn testimony while plowed? If one tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth when snockered, then perhaps our courts ought to require witnesses to demonstrate a sufficiently elevated BAC to testify. The specific effects of drunkenness, beyond the most clinical physiological ones, are just not predictable. Some people get sleepy, some people get witty and funny and loud, and some people get mean and even violent and take a swing at a friend or a cop. Alcohol is a depressant that removes inhibitions, and it makes people do things that they wouldn't ever consider doing when sober. Alcohol can even affect someone's judgment to the point that getting behind the wheel of a car while soused seems like a perfectly reasonable idea. And while no one I know has ever conjured up a Jew-baiting reverie like Mr. Gibson's after a few drinks, we all know people who have said something indiscreet, offensive, or hurtful that they really, honest-to-God wish they had left unsaid because they truly do not believe it. Yet let's assume that Mel Gibson really does, on some level, think some of the things he said. There's a larger question underneath this controversy: let's assume there does exist an "inhibited" version of us, and also a chemically uninhibited version. Which one is the "real" person, and which is the artifice?
If one tends to think that our truest selves emerge only when our social inhibitions are removed, then one sees in Mr. Gibson's drunken self his true and unencumbered self.
But if one tends to think that our true and higher self is manifested in society, then one sees Gibson's folly differently.
Contd.

[Clanad]

Contd.

Gibson may, given his upbringing, harbor prejudices that he knows are shameful and wrong. But he ordinarily pushes these evil thoughts out of his mind (after all, it's not like he has a long track record of anti-Semitic statements) until one fateful evening where alcohol breaks down the barriers he built against them. Gibson said some truly ugly, awful things; He deserves harsh criticism for his irresponsibility and carelessness, not only in driving drunk and endangering innocent bystanders, but in losing control of his mouth. Let's hope he will prove to us that his shame and contrition, not his booze-addled bile, is a product of who he really is. I'm willing to wait and see, as I would with anyone else caught in this mess of his own making... (Thanks to some ideas from Clinton W. Taylor who is a lawyer and Ph.D. student at Stanford)

[ludwig]

As always clanad, good points, eloquently put. But let's be honest, the guy's quite simply a bigoted prick.