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The Final Solution for Mel Gibson
OK, that's a fib, but I couldn't resist using that title.
Unless something else newsworthy comes out of Gibson's recent arrest, this will be my last comment on the matter. "Newsworthy" would be a public statement about Gibson from, say, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Woody Allen, or one of the other prominently Jewish celebrities. Thus far, the only Hollywood Jews we've heard comment from have been people on the other side of the camera--producers, agents, executives. The only "talent" who has spoken on the subject (to my knowledge) has been Jackie Mason, and to be truthful when I saw that noted in the news, my initial thought was, "So Jackie Mason is still alive. Who knew?"
Regarding the anti-Semitic rant, and where it came from in the absence of any immediate provocation, I have already said all I have to say.
Of greater interest is the crack Gibson is reported to have made to a female police sergeant: "Hey sugar-tits, what are you looking at?" This is of interest because it clearly indicates Gibson got celebrity treatment at the scene of the arrest. I am friends with a handful of woman cops, one of whom used to work in the LAPD. I can tell you with certainty that if someone had addressed any of these women in the course of a traffic stop as "sugar tits," he would have required surgery to remove his scrotum from his upper intestine.
Of greatest interest is the press coverage of the matter. A few days ago I remarked that the photos of Gibson's apology depicted him as a bit too casual and informal for the circumstances. Here are the photos I refer to, and they have been widely published in connection with this story.
Now, the problem with these pics is that they have nothing to do with the arrest or the press conferences following it. The Smoking Gun first published the mug shot from the arrest (below). Even a burnout case like me can figure out that no one could grow the beard Gibson is sporting in the photos above in two or three days. As I googled for other articles about the arrest, I realized that the MSM picked up whatever Mel Gibson photo was close at hand to illustrate the story. Only when I found the C.W.Nevius blog at SFGate.com did I find a caption reading "
This is not how Mel Gibson looked when booked for DUI last week. But then, we don't have the booking photo do we?"
So in reporting the story, most of the media have conveniently blurred the line between reality and non-reality. If it happens in a high-profile story like this, what's the probability that you or I would get fair treatment in the event we did something as publicly stupid as Gibson had?
Finally, there's this thought: The Pacific Coast Highway has some genuinely frightening stretches. The few places where I've driven it, you are threading your way between cliffs rising to the east, and a sharp dropoff to the Pacific Ocean to the west. In some places, with no shoulder or guard rail.
So, if Gibson persists in drunken, high-speed driving on that particular road, the end of the story will write itself soon enough.
Meanwhile, I have tired of hearing about it, much less writing. I'm no great fan of motion pictures, so the only film in which I have "seen" this particular Hollyweird badboy is as the voice of Rocky Rooster in Chicken Run. The USA is full of great voice over talent (ahem, including yours truly), and if this particular voice's owner gets himself killed, he'll be replaced easily in the next casting call.
-01111- (for the uninitiated, that's "30" in decimal)