The New Republic

I believe the later portions of the rant included a wish for her to "fall off the f*cking side of the Earth."

- rozenson

July 1, 2010 at 4:17pm

I have long gaped in amazement at the loon, Mel Gibson.

- liberal reformer

July 1, 2010 at 4:25pm

Gibson has indeed fallen off the rails, but early in his career he teamed with the great director Peter Weir (another Australian I believe) to produce two great movies, Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously. Would James Dean be the revered actor he is if he had lived long enough to make a fool of himself?

- rayward

July 1, 2010 at 4:34pm

Paging Michael Medved ...

- wildboy

July 1, 2010 at 5:12pm

If you put up a list of things I could not care less about, this wouldn't have even been worthy of being noteworthy enough to put on that list. As to what he said, in NJ it would qualify as chatting.

- blackton

July 1, 2010 at 5:43pm

Surprise, surprise... I have always found that if someone is just a flat out anti semite, like Gibson, they usually have strongly bigoted viewpoints on people of color. Well, there is always the tea party demographic who can keep his pathetic career tottering along.

- MrCookie1

July 1, 2010 at 5:57pm

I know I am worrying about this too much. However, has Gibson ever explained how his fornicating and having a child out of wedlock as well as his divorce goes with his ultra-Catholic beliefs? I mean he thinks Pope Benedict is too liberal.

- MikeB.

July 1, 2010 at 6:48pm

I'm shocked, shocked!

- NR114746

July 1, 2010 at 7:37pm

If Gibson somehow finds work after this does that mean it's the Blacks, and not the Jews, who control Hollywood? Who knew? In fairness, it could be the Black Jews, I suppose.

- bigm

July 1, 2010 at 7:58pm

"Who could have guessed that an ultra right-wing, mysoginistic anti-Semite would also turn out to be a racist?" I've always thought being an anti-Semite is equivalent to being a racist? Somebody school me...

- wkwami

July 1, 2010 at 9:30pm

The larger question is why is this guy going so far off the rails? Apparently, one with his, um, toolbox of "beliefs" probably just doesn't acquire them late in life. It has always been there. Did he just keep quiet until he hit 50? There is an interesting, albeit sordid and despicable, story waiting to be told: What is it that is driving this guy to such a grotesque public melt down? Drugs? Uncontrollable hatred? Their seems to be almost a career death wish here.

- MrCookie1

July 2, 2010 at 12:21am

First of all, to wkwami: I'm happy to school you in the world of sarcasm, I'm sure it will be a delightful lesson. (Poor attempt at sarcasm, I admit.) Secondly: Building on MrCookie's comments, one thing that has always perplexed me about Mel Gibson is, how did someone so obviously bigoted last so long in Hollywood? It's hard to remember now, but back in the day he was one of the most prized assets in Hollywood, an undeniable screen presence who was also a pretty damn good director. Stereotypes aside, it's true that there are a lot of Jewish people in Hollywood, including some Jewish directors who Gibson worked with, and they apparently never had a problem with him. He won two Oscars, which is hard to do if you're regarded as a monster in the industry. And I seriously doubt that he was ranting about rapist n***gers while he was hanging out with Danny Glover on the set of the "Lethal Weapon" movies. Even more perplexing is the fact that Gibson's prejudices seem to be something he's lived with his entire life. (At the very least, his anti-Semitism is something that he apparently inherited from his father.) So it's not like he recently got some weird ideas in his head and then let them run rampant. It's like bigotry is a condition or disease like alcoholism, which can lie dormant or relatively contained for years, until something sets it off. In Gibson's case, it appears to be increased independence in the industry, combined with a declining box office value. It's really sad, because I still believe that he was a valuable asset in film. Unfortunately, he had a corrupt soul.

- ulexamp

July 2, 2010 at 2:04am

I know you guys don't want to hear this and it certainly doesn't excuse a thing, nor does it mean he doesn't actually hold these beliefs - but the man is floridly bi-polar.

- WandreyCer

July 2, 2010 at 6:29am

You may have a point. If the man's mental condition is deteriorating, then it becomes more likely that all this sewage he's bottled up will just spew out.

- zardoz67

July 2, 2010 at 10:45am

ulexamp, Hollywood is filled with assholes. Assholes who make money for other people, whether as writers or producers or directors or performers, will always be able to find work. Assholes who don't make money for other people are said to be "difficult to work with" and have a hard time finding work. It's that simple. There is no test of character involved. (This is true of most professions, actually: A willingness to express racist or other bigoted views rarely prevents anyone who makes money for other people from making a living. I've heard talk not unlike Mel's rants from successful lawyers, athletes, finance people of all stripes, even from successful tradesmen. If you make other people money, or if you're your own boss, and you're neither a teacher nor a politician, you can think and say pretty much whatever you please.)

- rhubarbs

July 2, 2010 at 10:51am

For me, the more interesting question is why he decided that "n*****s" come in "packs". He could easily have used "gang" - and it would have gone better with "rape". I mean, if he wanted to be less conventional, he might have gone with "murder" or "pride". If he sees niggers as wolves - and not just any random predator - how does he view Jews? On the whole, and aside from my evidently perplexing, and perplexed, fixation on the word "pack", I'm with Blackie on this one. Ever since Lethal Weapon - a fine movie, IMHO - he has been acting on one note, on and off the screen: "deranged". The less one hears about him, the better.

- icarusr

July 2, 2010 at 11:48am