The Passion of the Gibson

Holy c**t whore, Batman! Mel Gibson may just be the angriest man in the world! In a series of taped phone conversations with his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, released by website RadarOnline.com, the 54-year-old actor unleashed a torrent of nasty, vile, vicious, racist expletives and threats of violence that suggest that Mad Mel not only dislikes Jews and gays, as his past behavior demonstrates, but blacks, Mexicans ("wetbacks", as he calls 'em) and women too. And, clearly, himself.



Jeez, what happened to this guy? Where did our lovable old "Lethal Weapon" Mel go? When did our valiant Braveheart turn into a violent, racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic drunken asshole? When he screams into the phone "You need a bat beside the head" and "I'll put you in a fucking rose garden, you c**t," it chillingly recalls the brutal murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman by that other maniacal substance abuser O.J. Simpson. Gibson also wishes Grigorieva gets "raped by a pack of niggers." Listening to these horrible verbal assaults on the tapes made public (no doubt by a petrified Grigorieva herself), it's hard not to fear for this woman's life.

And if Gibson's despicable behavior wasn't enough, Hollywood pals like Whoopie Goldberg have shamefully come to his defense. On "The View" Monday, she assured listeners that "I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist." Sorry Whoopie, but anyone who uses the word nigger the way your buddy did is a racist. She then a day later again defended him by saying it was more or less alcohol-induced "jackassian behavior." Sure, just some good ole boy innocent horseplay, right? The truth is, booze doesn't make people racist. Just makes 'em honest. It relaxes people's inhibitions and brings to the surface the ugliness that normally percolates quietly beneath it. But that's no excuse. No matter how drunk I would ever get I am never gonna use that word. Ever. Period. It's a disgusting, hateful, outrageously offensive slur. But I guess it's convenient to simply blame it all on liquor. I suppose alcohol was also responsible in July '06 for turning the normally Jew-loving Gibson into the unhinged lunatic who told Malibu police "Fucking Jews...the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" during his DUI arrest?

Or how about Gibson's homophobic rant during a 1991 interview in the Spanish language newspaper El Pais: "They take it up the ass, this [pointing to his butt] is only for taking a shit. With this look, who’s going to think I’m gay? I don’t lend myself to that type of confusion. Do I look like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?" Was that caused by alcohol too? Years later Gibson commented: "I shouldn't have said it, but I was tickling a bit of vodka during that interview, and the quote came back to bite me on the ass." Once again, it was old Mr. Smirnofftalking, and not the racist Mel Gibson.

On Wednesday Whoopie yet again stood by her buddy Mel by suggesting that she, who admittedly hurls racial epithets during fits of road rage, must be a racist too then if Gibson is a racist for using the N-word. She also condescendingly implied that as a black woman she somehow knows better than us whities and that we should trust her judgements. All of which is highly convoluted logic. Two people screaming racial insults doesn't mean neither is racist. To the contrary, it means that both are. And, I don't have to be black to conclude that someone is a bigot. I still have ears. White ears, perhaps, but they hear racist-spewed venom just fine.

Had the ranter been someone else and not her pal Gibson, we all know that Goldberg would've used her "View" bully-pulpit to pounce on him like white on rice. She'd have been the first one on that dais to scream racism. But instead, like all the Roman Polanski apologists and defenders, her Hollywood loyalty led her to downplay and trivialize Gibson's vile racist behavior. Shame on them both.

To be sure, Gibson needs help. And lots of it. Let's hope he gets it quickly before something truly tragic occurs beyond his embarrassing, humiliating, drunken phone rants.