[P-Marlowe]

Everyone is offered that "deal" for a first offense.

[Perdogg]

Will he have to make a PSA Film about drinking and driving called "The Last Temptation of Otis ?"

[cripplecreek]

Not much of a deal if you ask me. My first drunk driving arrest only got me a year of probation and less than $1000 in fines.

[ladyjane]

Too bad he wasn't arrested in Durham, NC. The gal who says she was raped by the Duke Lacrosse team stole a taxi, drove through two counties at high speed, tried to run over a policeman, and blew twice the legal limit. She got a misdemeanor.

Of course she has a special relationship with the Durham D.A.

[RushCrush]

What were Oliver Stone's 'deals'?

[stm]

I have always had a lot of respect for Mel Gibson. I always saw him as a strong conservative and family man and a good Catholic. He always stood out as an anachronism (along with people like Bruce Willis, Dennis Hopper and a few others) in that putrid city. But with this incident it seems like he is really not much different from the rest of that wretched refuse. Sorry Mel, you just made the list as far as I am concerned.

[PreciousLiberty]

"after being pulled over on Pacific Coast Highway, in Maui, for speeding."

Note to the Brits: Maui is an island in Hawaii. MALIBU is a community in California, near the PCH. I know, the spelling is really close. :P

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don't know if Gibson has priors on the record, but he has confessed publicly to having driven drunk before this incident. He was also going something like 87 mph for this one. He clearly has a long term problem, totally apart from his sick rant. On top of this, he had plenty of opportunity to get a cab when people at the bar suggested that, and he can also afford to have himself chauffered around in a limo that waits for him while he gets drunk in bars -- an option not available to most people.

I think he got off obscenely easy -- the idea that he'll be fine to get behind the wheel again 3 months from now is just insane. Obviously he has to kill someone before the courts will do anything to stop him. And yes, appallingly, this is "par for the course", and not just for celebrities.

[Mike Darancette]

In other news the kid that that played with Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense", Haley Joel Osment was arrested for marijuana posession and DUI (he blew over .15).

I see drunk people!

[yevgenie]

He then launched into an anti-Semitic tirade, during which he allegedly said: "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

So how come you can allegedly say something without allegedly launching into a tirade?

[HawaiianGecko]

arrested on July 28 after being pulled over on Pacific Coast Highway, in Maui, for speeding.

Maui??? Actually we call it the Honoapiilana Highway not the Pacific Coast Highway.  :-)

[goldstategop]

Deal? Its special treatment. Us regular stiffs wouldn't get a pass like that for a first time DUI. I guess they figured its next to impossible to convict a celebrity. They are god-like to the public.

( No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)

[raygun]

He received the lightest sentence allowable for first offense. Anybody convicted for first offense DUI, DWI, and gets that should consider themselves lucky. On the other hand, an OUIL conviction would result in total monetary expense of most likely double that, including jail time up to 90 days (depending on the judge). The judges hands are for the most part tied with respect to minimums. They merely have discretino concerning how severe they desire to be.

What's not included in the picture is

• Towing & Impoundment: $75-$100
• Conditional release (Bail): $100-$500
• Assessment & Screening: $75
• Attorney fees: $750-$1500
• Police Recovery Costs (where applicable): $300
• substance abuse treatment: $150
• Fines: including State Assessments, costs for probation, crime victims fund, work release programs, etc): $1,000+
• License Reinstatement Fee: $125 3-Yr. Insurance premium increase: $3600

[eleni121]

I'll see "Apocalypto" and I'll always refer to "The Passion" as a great film...but that's as far as I'll go.

Mel is toast. But there's always tomorrow.

[TChad]

If the report I read was correct, Mel has to attend about 200 AA meetings over the next year. If so, I believe that is an unusually harsh punishment for a first offense non-accident DUI.