Mad Mel

Or is it Stupid Mel? Or Idiot Mel?

By now you've probably all heard that Mel Gibson was caught speeding whilst drunk. He has issued an apology, outlined here, but apparently made a crass, racist remark about the police officer being Jewish. There would have been less anger from Hollywood if he had asked the officer if he was a Hizbollah terrorist, methinks.

Great article outlining what happened.

Mel's publicity spin came around quite quickly in playing the sympathy card by having him admit that he was an alcoholic. Until just now I didn't know that he had made an anti-Semitic remark and when I heard the call for him to be ostracised by Hollywood I was a bit taken aback. He's an alcoholic so why would they throw him out? Is it because he hasn't reached the peak of being a drug abuser yet after so many years in the industry? Well, his comments have changed the situation a bit.

Perhaps he will be able to save his career by saying that he was doing some method acting and his next Lethal Weapon movie requires him to drive at twice the speed limit with a blood alcohol level at one and a half times the limit. Maybe.

I think less of him for his drink-driving than for his racist comments however. It's not as if he can't afford a chauffeur. I see lots of public service coming up. But will it be the same sort of public service that MicroSoft achieves by making itself more widespread? Time will tell. It's a good thing that he didn't have a mobile phone in his hand. Just think if Russell Crowe was in the car with him. I think the call for Aussies to disown him, as he was born in the US, will peak in a few weeks, all will be forgiven, and we'll welcome him as an Aussie again soon. Maybe.