Mel Watch, Day 4

I'll admit it...I'm fascinated by this Mel Gibson thing. Fascinated.

The first thing that's clear: he clearly holds prejudices against the Jews. I've read a few articles and posts around the Web in the past few days implying that, well, he was just drunk and you go nuts when you get drunk and you say stuff you don't mean. Here's Michael Gaynor in a post from Primitive Screwhead Central Renew America, courtesy of the good people at Sadly No! He's taken this opportunity not only to defend Mr. Gibson, but to attack Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League:

I don’t know exactly what Mr. Gibson said and whether press reports embellished or underreported, but the key points do not depend on the details: (1) anti-Semitism is a sin and thus to be avoided, not indulged in, and (2) Mr. Gibson, an alcoholic who admittedly suffered a relapse, does NOT encourage anti-Semitism when he is sober and, as a vile ranting of a drunken man, any anti-Semitic remark he made are not to be taken as divine revelation conveyed through Mr. Gibson.

Mr. Gibson presumably is genuinely remorseful, and God presumably has forgiven Mr. Gibson. BUT, Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, has NOT. Instead of taking the high road and accepting the apology, Mr. Foxman took the low road (and he was sober!).

Gaynor wants to forward this theory that alcohol makes you believe shit you wouldn't otherwise believe. This does apply in some specific cases. For example, I typically believe that urinating on one of the trees lining Washington Blvd. in Culver City is wrong, but I've been known to think otherwise after 7-10 beers. This, however, is not a deeply-held sentiment.

But I don't get drunk and immediately start talking shit on the Argentinians or anything. Because I don't hate them and alcohol doesn't work like that. It might be more fun if it did. If you could just down a couple shots and suddenly have this completely alternative political agenda. "Hey, I never realized it before, but I'd kind of like to bomb a federal building! This sour apple martini is delicious!"

What happens is, you get drunk and all the shit you think all the time but don't say suddenly releases its ugly self upon the world. Think about it. Drunk dialing may be the most pernicious social hazard of our time. Now that everyone has a cell phone, stupid late-night alcohol-fueled phone conversations that wind up radically reconfiguring a personal relationship must be up, like, 200,000,000%. Before, you'd have to think of the mean-spirited or inadvertedly flirtatious thing you were going to say to the person while still at the bar, get all the way home, remember the individual's phone number, dial and then begin speaking. Now, you're only ever two buttons away from making a complete ass out of yourself.

So, okay, Mel hates Jews. I kind of knew this already, but now it has been officially confirmed.

The latest updates on the case are these:

Mel has an ongoing problem with alcohol and has checked himself into a facility in Malibu.

Some reports are saying that Mel Gibson was suicidal on Thursday night and would probably be dead right now if officers had not pulled him over and stopped his rampage. From Nikki Finke:

I'm told by a source intimate with his situation tonight that Mel Gibson "was really on the verge of suicide because he felt he was helpless to alcohol and didn't know what to do about it." Sure, my reaction was: sounds like spin. But the source here is someone I've known closely for years. Make your own judgment -- here's the rest of what he told me about Gibson (mugshot left): "No one's really asking questions about his state of mind. That's why he was driving around 90 miles an hour. This was a death wish. If that cop hadn't stopped him, this guy was going to be wrapped around a pole. This is such a bigger issue than 'Will he work again?' This is about his not wanting to live anymore. I've seen what he's gone through and what he's going through. You have to understand the disease of alcoholism. He was back in it. There's no doubt in my mind he was trying to kill himself that night."

If Mel ever works in this town again, I think he should at least consider taking over Charles Bronson's Death Wish series of films. "They ridiculed his films...They insulted his father...They murdered his savoir...Now, he's gonna but the DIE back in Judaism! Mel Gibson's Death Wish." Oh man...I wanna see that movie so bad...

No, but seriously...I kid Mel Gibson...I kid...

It does sound like spin, I'll admit. But could this be true? It's clear the guy harbors some deep-seated resentment against the Jews. He's all but admitting that. But it's hard not to feel bad for someone who is this out of control. A guy who has everything but who's this tortured inside and demented by rage.

Then there's his latest public statement:

STATEMENT FROM MEL GIBSON August 2, 2006 -- There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of Anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge. I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena. As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words. The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God’s child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith. I’m not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing. I have begun an ongoing program of recovery and what I am now realizing is that I cannot do it alone. I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery. Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed. This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license. This is about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. It’s about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad.

So he's definitely admitting that he has a Jew problem. He says "I am not an anti-Semite" but then he goes right into asking the Jewish community for help with his vaguely-described "problem." I don't see what he thinks these Jewish organizations can really do for him, even if he is an alcoholic. How can a Jew convince someone to not be an anti-Semite?

MEL: Hey, I want to heal myself. Can you help me?

JEW: Okay.

MEL: I just...I just hate Jews.

JEW: Um...please don't.

MEL: But I just do.

JEW: Why?

MEL: Because you start all the wars. And control all the banks. And Hollywood. And you killed Jesus. Plus, my father said something about the Holocaust being made up.

JEW: But that's all just lies and propaganda. We're really nice guys.

MEL: But how do I know this isn't propaganda right now? What if you do control all the banks and Hollywood and you just want me to think you don't?

JEW: It's not.

MEL: I'm so confused. Man, I hate you guys!

And so forth.

Couple of other weird bits.

I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena.

What he said would be just as wrong if he were a private citizen. We all just wouldn't know about it. (Let's not forget, in addition to anti-Semitic slurs, he called a female officer "sugar tits." So it's a case of overall intolerant assholery not limited to just one specific group.)

The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life.

No, you should exercize charity and tolerance as a way of life because that's the proper way to live and the only fair way to treat fellow human beings. Not because the book you worship told you so. It's almost as if he'd love to be intolerant, if only the Bible permitted such behavior.

This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license.

Even here, int he middle of his soul-searching SECOND PUBLIC STATEMENT of contrition, he has to defend that stupid Christ movie. Dude, Mel, this is totally about a film. Granted, it's not just about you any more. It's about a large sector of America obsessing over an anti-Semitic screed and then convincing themselves that it's not anti-Semitic. Like it or not, your arrest confirms what some of us have been saying all along about this movie.

Okay, so having raised those issues...I have to say, otherwise, it's hard to read this statement and not feel for the guy. He's troubled. Some might say "insane." But it can't be easy to have been raised by King Batshit of Insania Hutton Gibson and he's clearly an out-of-control drunk.

It's just so hard to turn off the cynicism any more for two seconds. I read this and my first thought is, "Oh, it's just PR. He's got some representative writing all this stuff up for him, making him sound like a good guy who made a mistake." Maybe it's genuine, but I'd say probably not.

Thoughts?