For the record, Mel Gibson should also be held accountable for his words and actions.
Posted on 08/01/2006 7:04:55 AM PDT by gopwinsin04
So is Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic spew really headline news -- or is it just another celebrity DUI? Another high-profile addition to The Smoking Gun's mug shot gallery (Nick and Glen, meet your new buddy Mel)? Monologue fodder for Leno, Letterman, Conan, and Kimmel? Nothing but a tempest in a tequila bottle?
Maybe that would be the case if these were ordinary times. But, with extremists gaining power and garnering sympathy all across the world, there is nothing ordinary about these times.
And that is why this could prove to be a seminal moment in our cultural history. Particularly in the cultural history of Hollywood.
Taking a page from our president, I see the Gibson story as "a moment of opportunity," a chance for reasonable people to stand up and be counted. For the sane among us to identify, separate, and condemn the extremists, the fanatics, the fundamentalists, the bigots, the hate-mongers and say 'no more.'
In the same way that ordinary Muslims need to separate themselves from the blood-drenched ideology of Hezbollah, Hollywood needs to separate itself from the odious racism of Gibson. And I don't make that connection lightly. Remember, during his DUI tirade, Gibson claimed, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." That kind of thinking makes him psychological soul mates with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has said, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak, and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew."
Gibson's no-longer-deniable brand of bigotry has led to the extermination of millions -- and continues to fuel much of the strife and suffering in the world today. Which is why Hollywood cannot sit this one out and wait for the reviews to come in.
For years, social conservatives have questioned the morals and ethics of the entertainment community -- tossing around the shibboleth of "Hollywood values" as an oxymoronic grenade in the culture wars. Well, now is the time for Hollywood to show what those values really are by making Gibson pay the price for his bigotry and intolerance.
For starters, the town's power players need to step up and publicly condemn Gibson's vile comments (in effect, saying in public what they are already saying in private conversations I and many others have had). I mean, it shouldn't be so hard to publicly denounce someone -- even an Oscar-winner -- for being a raging anti-Semite.
But that's not happening. From this morning's Los Angeles Times:
Although many of the town's senior executives are Jewish and Hollywood has a long history of supporting Israel and Jewish causes, there was no widespread public condemnation of Gibson's comments over the weekend. Although some high-level executives privately expressed dismay at the statements attributed to Gibson after his arrest, none of those contacted would speak on the record.
Talk about lacking the courage of their convictions. Which makes Ari Emanuel's no-holds-barred post all the more praise-worthy. But is Ari the only high-profile figure willing to publicly draw a line in the Malibu sand? How disgusting and disappointing is that?
I know this is, at its heart, a very cautious town -- a place that always likes to keep one eye on the bottom line -- but this is no time to play it safe or to put dollars ahead of doing the unquestionably right thing.
Which is why Gibson's agent, Ed Limato, should immediately drop him as a client. And not because his boss at ICM, Jeff Berg, is Jewish, nor because so many of his clients, including Billy Crystal, are Jewish. This isn't a matter of Jews sticking together or non-Jews showing solidarity. It's about choosing sides in the real battle being fought all across the globe -- the fight between extremism and rationality, between hatred and common decency.
And Bob Iger at Disney needs to pull the plug on two Gibson projects that are in the works. The company is slated to distribute Gibson's latest directorial project, Apocalypto, opening on December 8. They should refuse to do so. And ABC, which is owned by Disney, should, without delay, scrap its head-scratching plan to develop a miniseries about the Holocaust with Gibson's company (yep, you read that right).
Yet when asked about the status of the still-in-development miniseries, an ABC spokeswoman said, "It is not at the point where you would make those determinations. There is no script."
Question for ABC: Do you really need to see a script to know that the idea of having a Holocaust-set miniseries produced by a guy who thinks "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" is a god-awful one?
Reading the horror stories of the survivors of the Qana bombing, any rational person's instinct is to criticize the tactics Israel is using to take on Hezbollah. Then a thought arises: will this criticism come across as part and parcel of the anti-Semitic worldview of the Gibson crowd?
Which is yet another reason Gibson needs to be ostracized: his lunatic ravings make it all-the-harder for legitimate criticisms of Israel's methods to be expressed and to be heard with uncluttered ears.
But that was during ordinary times. The author prefaced his hit piece by saying we are not living in ordinary times anymore. Thus, his out.
He does know how to work the camera, doesn't he?
I want to hear his taped comments about Jews. Don't the police use video when they stop folks?
If his voice sounds overly slurred and excessively drunk, then I'll assume his brain was out of gear at the time.
When I see an American flag flying, it's a joke." -- Robert Altman
"They're sheep. They like him (Bush) enough to credit him with saving the nation after 9/11. Three thousand people get killed, and everybody thinks they're next on the list. The president comes along, and he's got his six-guns strapped on, and people think he's going to save them." -- Ed Asner
"I also think that there is a strong streak of racism, and whenever we engage in foreign adventures. Our whole history in regime change has been of people of different color." -- Ed Asner
"I not only think that they (U.S. leaders) are misguided, but I think they know exactly what they are doing and I think that they are men who are possessed of evil." -- Harry Belafonte
"The real terrorist threats are George W. Bush and his band of brown-shirted thugs." -- Sandra Bernhard
"I think America has no experience with terrorism or even with war. In Europe, we know a little bit more about these things." -- Bono
"I'm saying that the moral climate within the ruling class in this country is not that different from the moral climate within the ruling class of Hitler's Germany." -- David Clennon, star of the hit CBS television series "The Agency,"
...I'm not comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler - because George Bush, for one thing, is not as smart as Adolf Hitler. And secondly George Bush has much more power than Adolf Hitler ever had." -- David Clennon, star of the hit CBS television series "The Agency,"
"You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people revenge-seeking. These days it only matters who's in charge. Right now that's us -- for a while at least. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win. ...I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore." -- George Clooney
"I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies." -- Sheryl Crow
Just a brief selection of word garbage from other Hollywood elites that wern't drunk at the time.
Get treatment Mel. Its OK. Can you imagine a speech or quote from say, W.C. Fields on black people or even Clark Gable on womens rights?
The MSM needs to take a cold shower.
I am not doubting what you heard but could you provide the source.
Cause if this is true then there may be a whole lot more to this story than was leaked.
I don't care what anybody says, that man has made some of the best movies in Hollywood History. Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, Passion, etc. And he is a riveting actor. God Bless Mel!
OH MY GOD....it's happened. I knew there'd be a way you anti-semites would make this all the Jews' fault. I suppose that the Jewish Deputy also planted the tequila bottle in his car and forced him to drive 80mpg in a 45mpg zone. And the Jews forced Mel to admit he was drunk and give an apology. You don't even realize how insane this makes you sound, does it?
Mel Gibson has not apologized. His PR firm apologized and wrote the words. Mel Gibson is a performer. Someone gives him written words and it is his job to make you believe whatever the script says. I don't buy the I was too drunk line. Of all the things he could have muttered, why did he pick the anti-Semitic line unless it's part of his personality. This topic is getting old and Mel Gibson does have a right to his beliefs. I just wish he hadn't shared them with the world. Just keep saying over and over, the man is an actor. He makes movies to make a lot of money. The subject of the movies is irrelevant. That's what producers do. Oliver Stone is producing such a vehicle opening on August 8.
"Gibson's no-longer-deniable brand of bigotry has led to the extermination of millions -- and continues to fuel much of the strife and suffering in the world today."
No.. actually it's trash like this piece that fuels hate and gets people killed.
Term of endearment?...if a man I don't know called me SUGAR TITS, I'd slap him across the face.
"Conspiracy Theory II: Don't Cross The Jews!"
Get real.
National Review Online.
I agree - Hollywood is defined by dingbats.
Could have been worse. He could have called the female officer "fat ass"...LOL.
sw
My computer is really slow this morning and I can't get into the Chicago Sun Times. In Richard Roeper's column this morning, he wrote about the arresting officer being Jewish. I would have given you the link if comcast wasn't running at snail's pace but you can look it up.
According to ABCNEWS, this project was cancelled last night.
Jeez...these talk show people kill me. COmparing this to Streisand and SDixie Chicks. It's not like Mel did that on purpose in a public forum to make a national statement. He did not PLAN to state his personal views to the world...unlike the others. And he did apologize which doesn't make it right...but the others do not...they want to try to influence. Mel is not.
Oh I am sure then the Mel posting crowd will get around to posting it. I sure hope there is 'video' with sound to back up the handwriting. Thanks.
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