Posted on 03/12/2014 4:35:10 PM PDT by Drew68
How ironic is it that Hollywood studios walk on eggshells with faith-based groups hoping their religious epics like Noah do a fraction of the business Mel Gibson did with The Passion Of The Christ, while those studios continue to shun Gibson like a leper? What better way to commemorate Passion‘s 10th anniversary than journalist Allison Hope Weiner‘s examination of her relationship with Gibson and how it evolved from harsh coverage to the point where she feels strongly enough about his good qualities and recovery to urge Hollywood to consider giving him another chance. Weiner has written about Gibson for Deadline before, as well as The New York Times and other national magazines.
– MF
It has been a decade since Mel Gibson made The Passion Of The Christ and watched it become the biggest-grossing independent film with $612 million in worldwide ticket sales. In the years that followed, Gibson made several comments that went public, made him seem anti-Semitic and racist. They made him persona non grata at major studios and agencies, the same ones that work with others who’ve committed felonies and done things far more serious than Gibson, who essentially used his tongue as a lethal weapon. As a journalist who vilified Gibson in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly until my coverage allowed me to get to know him, I want to make the case here that it is time for those Hollywood agencies and studios to end their quiet blacklisting of Mel Gibson. Once Hollywood’s biggest movie star whose film Braveheart won five Oscars and whose collective box office totals $3.6 billion, Gibson hasn’t been directly employed by a studio since Passion Of The Christ was released in 2004.
(Excerpt) Read more at movies.yahoo.com ...
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Very long but interensting article by a journalist who went from writing scathingly of Gibson during the past ten years to befriending him and why Mel Gibson deserves a second chance.
FWIW, I recently watched Gibson play the villian in Robert Rodriguez's low-budget, intentionally-awful (yet strangly entertaining) Machete Kills and I realized that I've missed him.
Independent films are starting to get very good, it is not just for dead beat or aging stars any more.
Personally I find them more entertaining than Hollywood films, just they are stuck with low budgets that don’t allow for the bells and whistles.
She’s not much of an “investigative journalist” if all she did was repeat the bile that others were spewing.
Gibson is hurting himself. He went and felt sorry for his stupidity. Look at Paula Deen. She was vilified and got up immediately and is getting back to work. Mel did a stupid thing and let it fester for a long time. He owned a production company so if he really wanted to get back to Hollywood, you immediately get back on the horse and get to work.
“Mel Gibson is an American and Australian actor, screenwriter, director, producer and investor with a net worth estimated at $425 million.”
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/actors/mel-gibson-net-worth/
And then she actually took the time to get to know him which is the point of this article.
When Mel drinks he spurs off with incredibly outrageous comments. His troubles are of his own making. Sometimes you just have to keep on the straight and narrow no matter what others ‘do’ to you
“Allison Hope Weiner” is playing the transference spell game.
Too bad she didn’t study the difference between volts and amps.
bookmark
I wish him well in his recovery. Alcohol has humbled, or destroyed the strongest of people. I really think he has it within himself to be among the greatest actors, directors and philanthropists. I especially hope he can rekindle with his family.
Ms. Weiner did not just repeat the bile that others were spewing. In fact, she did just the opposite. Did you read the article? Why don’t you read before commenting?
I did. Apparently you didn’t. She SAID she merely picked upon what other reporters were saying when she first covered the story and ASSUMED they were correct about Gibson’s character.
No, Ms. Weiner DID not say that. She said that she had gotten to know Mr. Gibson over a course of almost eight years and actually become his friend that is what she is basing her opinion on. Read the article again, and perhaps you will understand it.
She said, “Whether it’s Gibson, Tom Cruise or Alec Baldwin, the descent from media darling to pariah can happen quickly after they do something dumb. I was part of that pack of journalists paid to pounce, so I know. I consider myself intelligent, someone who makes up her own mind, but just like readers do, I have accepted some reports at face value. The press said that based on Gibson’s statements, he was a homophobe, a misogynist, a bully, an ant-Semite, so he must be.” Sounds like she went along with the pack.
Yes, she DID go along with the pack until she got to know him. Then she made up her own mind.
Which is what I said to start with. Why were you arguing?
I’ll add a bit of explanation. I was an award-winning journalist for 21 years. An investigative journalist investigates BEFORE drawing conclusions. The fact that she later came to admire the man does not absolve her of the responsibility to investigate FIRST, and then make up her mind. Letting Gibson go unjustly smeared for 8 years counts little in her favor.
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