Posted on 07/30/2006 5:13:24 PM PDT by familyop
MEL Gibson was speeding, drunk and absolutely certain of how this episode would end when he was pulled over and arrested by a police officer in Malibu.
Gibson, 50, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy James Mee he "owned" Malibu as he was driven, handcuffed, to the Los Hills sheriff's station early on Friday morning, and he would "get even" with him.
"I'm going to f--- you," Gibson reportedly said.
"You're going to regret you ever did this to me."
What followed will cast a shadow over the remainder of the American-born, Australian-raised Gibson's career as one of Hollywood's most admired and bankable actors, directors and producers.
Mee's official arrest report, partially released on the entertainment news website TMZ.com, and confirmed by an industry reporter and The Washington Post, described Gibson as "blurting out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks".
These included references to "f------ Jews" and "The Jews are responsible for all the war in the world", before asking the deputy: "Are you a Jew?"
According to the TMZ site, the deputy made an audio recording of the incident from the time Gibson's 2006 Lexus was pulled over for driving at 139 km/h in a 70 km/h zone on the Pacific Coast Highway in the affluent Los Angeles beachside suburb at 2.36am.
The gravity of his situation quickly struck Gibson, according to Deputy Mee. "My life is f-----," he said, after being told he was being arrested.
Gibson subsequently returned a blood alcohol reading of .12. The legal limit in California is .08.
"I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse," Gibson said yesterday.
In his statement of apology, Gibson said he regretted saying "things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable". However, the actor did not directly address the anti-Semitic remarks he was heard to have uttered.
Reaction to Gibson's arrest has been muted. The story did not break until Friday afternoon. TMZ posted its copy of the deputy's report on its website later that evening.
At risk is Gibson's ambivalent relationship with the Jewish lobby, quietly powerful in the film and television industry and in American politics.
Many in the Jewish community were outraged at the anti-Semitic message they claimed was implicit in Gibson's 2004 bloody blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, which he directed and funded with $US25 million from his personal fortune.
At a time the star's father, Hutton Gibson, denied the Holocaust in a radio interview, describing it as "maybe not all fiction, but most of it is".
The success of the film, with its international return of $US611 million, marked Gibson, a conservative Catholic, as a powerful political and cultural force.
In Australia, the executive director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, said Gibson had a history of anti-Semitic behaviour, citing as an example the The Passion of the Christ. "The episode, regrettably, is not a surprise," Dr Rubenstein said.
Gibson's success and influence hid what the actor yesterday acknowledged had become a losing battle with alcoholism. He had previously been arrested for driving under the influence while filming in Canada in 1984. At that point he returned to his farm near Yackandandah, in north-eastern Victoria, for two years to dry out, before resuming his film career in the US.
Deputy Mee said he found in the Lexus a bottle of Cazardores tequila in a brown paper bag "within easy reach" of Gibson while he had been driving. It was three-quarters full.
I think he should retire in some cave somewhere.
And be a joke for the rest of his life. (but that's going to happen anyway...)
You can start by thinking that just because a name has the word "Jew" in it, that doesn't mean the person who bears it is Jewish.
Stomp those feet.
Oy vey, Mel.
Poor Mel. He fell off the wagon and it ran over him.
Goes to show that even though he did something good (The Passion), we all still have dire faults.
"I don't believe for a second that he was "speaking his real thoughts" while at a .12 bac."
While I would really like to agree with this, I cannot. A blood alcohol of .12 is not that high. Also, if he is a true alcoholic, then his tolerance to alcohol is high so that 0.12 is nothing. Although ones thoughts may come out distorted and exagerated while under the influence, what does come out is what is basically there. Your inhibitions are lowered and you tend to say things and thoughts you would normally suppress. I know I did when I used to drink. Personally, I find myself forgiving his "dark side" because I know all of us have one we strive to suppress.
That being said, I fully sympathize with Mel and the alcoholism he has to contend with - I had a short period where I battled the bottle in my late 20s and I am glad I never developed a chemical dependency on alcohol so that I was able to stop drinking. I hope he can get back on the wagon. He is a fine actor and I would hate to see him stop working. Also, I would hate to see him pillored for saying politically/morally wrong things because he had been drinking.
So, I not coming down on the man when I say his credibility has been damaged. Unfortunately his dark side has been revealed to public srutiny. A horrible thing for any of us to have happen. Let me give you an example from my own life....I honestly abhor racism (anti-black thinking my in case) and I work hard to suppress it. However, there are times my deep seated "visceral" responses surface in regards to racism. I'm embarrassed and ashamed of it, but I don't try to excuse it, just to repent. I am a "recovering" racist. Mel is also...his just happens to be anti-semetism.
"then his tolerance to alcohol is high so that 0.12 is nothing"
Not so. Chronic alcoholics develop reverse tolerance as they age due to slower metablolism, brain changes and liver damage.
Uncontrolled raging and blowing a 1.2 indicates a very sick chronic alcoholic.
My favorite is the suggestion that alcohol makes one develop a bigoted streak out of nowhere.
My grandfather was an unbearable racist. I can't imagine that I would ever say the things that he preached no matter how much I drank.
It's kind of like me getting drunk and yelling, "I love Bill Clinton!" No possible way that would ever happen. I can, though, imagine getting drunk and saying many unkind things about him.
If the words are foreign to your belief system, you won't say them, no matter how much you drink.
Thank you and same to you!
Once an alcoholic spends some time in recovery, his drinking is ruined forever. The disease, the "-ism," continues to progress whether he/she is drinking or not. Each time drinking thereafter will be worse until death or recovery.
It takes a total and complete surrender to a Higher Power before the beneficial effects of sobriety can take hold. Some people simply comply, others surrender. This may be his last bottoming out. If he's lucky, he'll come out the other side. Do-overs are hell.
Dear sinkspur & SJackson,
I wasn't a big fan of Mr. Gibson's heretofore, although I did kinda like the whole Mad Max persona. I didn't go see the Passion movie. I'm not a big movie-goer.
However, I find myself rising to a partial defense of Mr. Gibson. Whether you think he apologized sufficiently enough, here is what he said:
“I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone I may have offended.”
He tells us:
- he acted completely out of control;
- said things that he doesn't believe are true;
- said things that are despicable;
- is deeply ashamed of EVERYTHING he said (not some of the things he said, but EVERYTHING he said);
- and apologizes to ANYONE he may have offended.
This is what is known as a categorical statement. There's nothing held back, here. With a statement like this, he doesn't need to go into details of precisely which words of which he's ashamed, nor specifically to whom he is apologizing. He's ashamed of ALL OF IT, and apologizing to ANYONE OFFENDED.
As well, he says that the things he said are despicable and untrue.
Now, you may choose not to give him the benefit of the doubt, and thus you may choose to believe that his apology is insincere, and that he hasn't told the truth about his feelings and beliefs. There's little Mr. Gibson will likely be able to do to convince you otherwise, and so be it.
However, his words represent a complete repudiation of what he said, and an apology carte blanche for what he said.
As for me, I don't really think that Mr. Gibson quite believes what he said.
sitetest
Cartman drinks tequila?
This was written for him by a PR flack. He mentioned the police specifically.
He did not mention the Jews specifically because he's not in the least sorry for his bigoted ranting.
Now, if he would come out publicly, apologize, and repudiate his father's anti-semitism, I would believe him and accept it because I know that is the last thing he wants to do.
I guess some of these Freepers get drunk and spew bigotry as a matter of course.
I know some drunks, mean drunks, and alcoholics. None of them ever did that.
Jeeez, I've heard of beer goggles, but beer bigotry?
Dear sinkspur,
"This was written for him by a PR flack."
I'm sure that his PR person had input, perhaps only secondary to his attorneys. However, I suspect the overall direction of the statement was the choice of Mr. Gibson, himself.
I'm actually kind of surprised at the categorical nature of his admission and apology. I don't think my lawyer would have permitted me to say something like this under similar circumstances. He has opened himself up to additional charges being made against him because of this statement.
My lawyer says, then, that statements like this are held to be more credible because they are what he calls "statements against interest."
I suppose that perhaps he mentioned the police specifically, because he did specifically verbally attack specific police officers. All his other spew was general, not directed toward any specific person.
In any event, a categorical statement is a categorical statment. He said he is ashamed of EVERYTHING he said, and that what he said was despicable, and that he doesn't believe it's true.
As to why he doesn't get more specific, I can only speculate.
"Now, if he would come out publicly, apologize, and repudiate his father's anti-semitism,..."
Yet, sinkspur, you seem to get very close to the heart of the matter, and yet, seem to miss the point.
I believe that he loves his father yet hates some parts of his father's beliefs. He admires and respects his father, and yet may find repulsive some of the things he father thinks and says.
I love my own father dearly, but there are things that he thinks and says that I find repugnant. I loved my own mother dearly, but frankly, there were things she believed and said that I abhorred. For many years, my own mother was adamantly pro-abort. You can imagine how that tore me up, sinkspur.
Yet, I would be hard pressed to repudiate either of my parents all too publicly.
Not because I actually believe(d) their cr@p, but because I try to obey the Commandment. Sometimes, sinkspur, I find the line between hating what is wrong in them and outright disrespect to blurry, and difficult to toe.
And I ain't NEAR as screwed up as Mel Gibson.
;-)
sitetest
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