The End of Days: April 21, 2011
A pretty dead day in movie news.
Tribeca opened with a not-very-good doc, but got a 3-song concert out of Elton John… which really is the Tribeca Film Festival’s brand to date. This is all they have. What happened to Geoff Gilmore heating things up?
Jeremy Renner gets Bourne. Great. With all respect to Renner, who is a great actor, it’s nothing like a coup. The film will have to be sold from the ground up.
Deadline Hollywood paid Alison Hope Weiner for her sycophantic interview with Mel Gibson (no doubt arranged by Gibson’s loyal handler and the Summit PR team that are Nikki’s bestest friends). Summit is releasing The Beaver and must be desperate for something from Gibson. Weiner claims she gave the interview to Deadline because, “editors at other media outlets seemed inclined to use this story to pursue their own agendas.” You mean, like expecting you to behave like a journalist when you get access to someone with a sordid history? I mean, seriously, not a single real question in the entire interview. People might have bought it, but not EW… to soft for EW! I can softball with the best of them. I don’t need to get into anyone’s personal life to ask them about a movie. But if the only way you address the elephant in the room is to ask whether the smell offends your subject and then offer to clean up all the shit yourself because life is so hard for them… you are a lay down hack. Gibson gets to be forthcoming… and not say a single thing of note. But that’s why they handed him to someone safe… even while Deadline is trying to claim there were no ground rules. Pete Hammond does a tougher interview. Some examples of the weighty questions:
“Do you try to stay fit?”
“Is it hard to have a new baby at your age?”
“Let’s talk about The Beaver. It’s getting amazing reviews — there was just an incredible one by Richard Roeper.” (I believe in Foster and hope the movie is great, but Richard Roeper? The game show host? Really?)
“How did you find yourself in the position to make some of these many bad choices?”
“Did you ever question that you chose the wrong occupation — especially when the tapes were released? Did you think that, ‘I’m sick of this and I chose the wrong job’?”
“People don’t know very much about who you really are. You had this public persona that seemed easy-going and always happy and joking.”
“It seems like you’ve become really uncomfortable with your fame.”
“Don’t you find that a lot of your industry friends have different political beliefs than you?”
And my favorite… “You were going to do a small part in Hangover II. How did you respond to being asked to do that and then having cast members not want you in it? How did it feel to have them allow a convicted rapist [Mike Tyson] in the movie and not you?” which she follows up with, “That’s a very Hollywood hypocritical moment.”
Congratulations, Nikki… you bought yourself the least revealing interview from a guy who stopped giving interviews because someone might ask a real question since Eddie Murphy turned up on Inside The Actors Studio. Maybe Ms. Weiner can get that gig when James Lipton retires. And maybe you’ll set some higher standards for your site someday… but I ain’t holding my breath.
And Premium VOD launched on DirecTV. The Wrap is running an ad that allegedly has gone out to customers… though as a customer who receives my billing and everything else via e-mail from DirecTV, I have gotten nothing. Moreover, the “ad” looks like it has to be a page on the DirecTV website, as it has links at the top to “My Account,” My Programming,” etc, like on the website. But there is NO sign of Home Premium on the website and a search of the term or of Just Go With It leads nowhere. The only offering of any kind that I have been able to find remains the link on the guide, right next to all the other $5 movie rentals, that I noted earlier today on The Hot Blog.
DP: What questions would you have asked Mel?
Wonder how much Deadline.com paid for this interview… 25K maybe? What do yo think the going rate is for something like this?
The main question to ask Mad Mel is:
“What is like to be THE awesomest, most hardcore balls-out fucking AWESOME MANIAC GENIUS in the HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD?”
GIBSON = GOD. The man is THE REAL. GIBSON-SHEEN for president, 2012.
Hey, nobody feels compelled to shame nice Matthew Broderick about his past in every interview, but a drunk who shoots is mouth off and threatens a HORRIBLE BENEATH CONTEMPT GOLD DIGGER is persona non grata.
GIBSON 4 EVER.
oh, good…happy hour @ the ‘g’ spot….
I have read the interview and alas, but not surprisingly, Mel is still in profound denial as to who he is and what he has done. And if he has been for counseling there is little evidence that it has had any meaningful impact. Mel is still the innocent, sinned-against victim.
Sure, Gibson has his handlers close by just in case, but really Weiner was more coached for the interview than Mel.
oh dear lex, you left out the best, most AWESOMEST part where mel punched the woman in the grill and did her a serious damage (for which he was investigated, charges brought and prosecuted by the state for battery — tho he did try to buy his way out of it first, but funnily the ‘gold-digger’ in question ultimately refused the money to make it all go away and stuck to her guns, in spite of gibson’s persistent trumped-up ‘extortion’ pleas which were found to be without merit after a separate investigation), and then like a true hardman plead ‘no contest’ a la all guilty celebs rather than having to face the music like regular people, for which he got a slap on the wrist. what a hero for the ages!
(and totally, gibson/sheen would be the perfect presidential ticket, men who beat up/abuse women should ALWAYS have the most power and hold the highest offices in the land, thugs RULE — tho i thought it was supposed to be ‘trump/sheen’… aw poor donald, did he get superseded? maybe he could be the chief of staff or whatever it’s called, then it would be the perfect storm of a violent HGH-crack cocaine- fueled assholerama buffoonfest in the oval office, credibility restored in earnest)
also, i’d like to know why we didn’t get a nude screencap of mel from ‘lethal weapon’ or something for the photo at the top of this thread akin to lohan’s nudie
Absolutely ZERO evidence that he punched and caused “serious” damage to Oksana. ZERO. There is a picture of her grinning at the dentist with her veneers off. No bruising, no split lip, no swelling. Sorry, but you don’t get PUNCHED in the face by a guy without one of those things happening.
West Plea is not the same as “no contest”. Obviously the prosecuter and judge knew there was no evidence there and saved everyone the circus that would have come with a trial.
Oksana didn’t take the money offered her because she was greedy. She wanted “Tiger Woods” money but Mel wouldn’t give it to her. She released the tapes bit by bit to try and make him break, but it didn’t happen. She screwed herself by her own greed. Now she won’t even bring a lawsuit against him b/c he will counter sue and all of her nasty history will be there for the world to see. Game over.
Oksana showed her cards when she slowly leaked the secretly taped phone conversations over a period of weeks. She’d release one damning clip, and as soon as the buzz died down, she’d release another piece, then wait a few days, then release another piece…
Doesn’t excuse what he said or did, but I had less sympathy for her with every release.
Still bugs me Mel’s not in Hangover II. Who the heck cares about a cameo by Nick Cassavetes?
ginger: nonsense. and you ‘know’ this how? you were there?
(lex i thought you hated gingers, why are pretending to be one? i saw the pics of oksana, so did the prosecutors, you’re delusional ‘ginger’. if there was no case to answer, charges would NOT have been laid and it would NOT have gone to court (or the charges would have been dismissed), where gibson was CHARGED with criminal battery and sentenced. i think that was in fact where the game ended. oh, and it was stated out loud, IN COURT, that mel plead “NO CONTEST”. listen up, silly. perhaps you best get yer facts straight before posting untruths and biased nonsense)
“Doesn’t excuse what he said or did…”
oh really, krillian? kinda sounds that way, lots to say about her actions and not much of anything about poor mel (and you have no idea how things played out between them, i mean it would be IMPOSSIBLE to be genuinely scared of a fucking raging lunatic who wants you dead, but no… and perhaps a bit of mel’s past could be dragged up as well, on the news i saw quite a bit of a european woman mel was with – while he was married – right before oksana who said he was a fucking maniac and went off the deep end and threatened her several times, while abusing HGH. funny how none of that is front and centre like oksana’s past)
oh wait, but the women must be lying, conniving bitches while mel is just a sad victim of his own celebrity, how could i forget
Anyone else hear Barney from The Simpsons when they read Lex’s posts?
It is amazing how some people essentially make statements akin to “well he may have been bad but she was a greedy whore after his money.” Did anyone force Mel Gibson to leave his wife and have a child with this woman? Does her past, whatever behavior it includes, justify anything and everything he said and did to her? We are so quick to overlook or downplay or make excuses for domestic abuse, verbal and physical, in this country. Granted we don’t know everything that took place between this couple, but some people seem way more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
well said, paul
i forgot mention before to “ginger” that on the one tape mel readily admits to hitting oksana; she says to him something to the effect of ‘what kind of man hits a woman holding a baby’ and he yells after mumbling something like “oh are you whining about that again,” clear as a bell, “you fucking deserved it”, plus it’s mentioned on another occasion in the tapes and he doesn’t deny it then either. so i guess that’s case closed, huh, ginger?
i have a friend who’s a journo in the southland and she followed the story from the sheriff’s dept side, and it’s accepted knowledge that oksana made the tapes on legal advice after being assaulted to gather evidence of mel’s completely irrational and violent temper in case he was violent towards her again. i’m told this is why she was not prosecuted for recording him without his knowledge/consent, which is illegal in cali, which you can only do under special circumstances, apparently one of which is if criminal activity is suspected or some such
oh and “ginger”, this is for you. ‘no contest’, tho with the ‘people vs. west’ adjunct so as to try to duck what is essentially a guilty plea
http://www.losangelesattorneycriminaldefense.com/2011/03/mel-gibson-pleads-no-contest-p.html
you’re trying to tear down gibson with the exact evidence that makes him a hero to people like “ginger” (and we all know who we’re really talking about)… pity that he’ll always have a home here…
Yes, it doesn’t excuse what he said or did. Don’t project on me.
there’s a dave chapelle bit where he’s being interviewed as a potential juror in trials against famous black defendants.
they get to michael jackson and start asking him why he’s not willing to believe the case against him and he exclaims
“because he made thriller”
that always summed up the kind of all-forgiving view so many people have of celebrities. it doesn’t matter what they do or how much awful behavior they exhibit. at one point, they did something really cool and it gives them a pass for the rest of their lives.
you can be a racist, hate spewing asshole who punches women (allegedly), but it’s fine because you made Lethal Weapon and Braveheart.
And you know what, i don’t know the guy from Adam. Maybe he’s a megalomaniac and a monster, maybe he’s mentally ill, maybe it’s hard to make a judgment about someone based on the snippets we get from the media.
maybe somewhere between unconditional love and the believing the worst in people there’s the truth.
Leah… starting with you as you always love to drag out the misogyny claims… the Lindsay shot is one of four images meant to speak to the range of her unpredictable behaviors, from younger and in the Hollywood groove to drunk in a car on Sunset Blvd to naked in NY Magazine to being in court, working a camera and wearing a near see-thru dress without a bra. I thought it was a pretty good representation and while I wasn’t planning on including her boobs, cutting into that image to avoid them seemed childish. If she wants to flog herself in a mainstream magazine topless, why is this a problem you are having with me? Boobs don’t scare me. And it was most pointedly not a panty-free car-exiting shot. This was something she absolutely chose for herself.
As for Gibson, I chose an image of washing himself of his sins – and the “interview” is about as generous a cleansing tongue bath as any cat has ever given – and felt that just running the same old booking photos or wildman shot would be worthless.
Next…Ron… I don’t know that Deadline paid a huge amount for this interview. My guess is that it was all arranged between like-minded parties. I haven’t had any issue with Alison Hope Weiner before this, but her petulant explanation about why she “chose” Deadline is either an outright lie or a delusion, neither of which reflects well on her. (And while Anita Busch embracing the interview is interesting, it has a lot more to do with Anita and Pellicano and Weiner – which is also a Nikki obsession – than it does whether this is a remotely legit interview.)
And Michael… I specifically chose not to make a list of questions I would have asked. But the only time any reference was made in the “interview” about the drunk driving arrest and rant, it was couched so there was no actual request for him to answer a question.
“WEINER: Even when the drunk driving/anti-semitic incident happened and was splashed everywhere, you continued to work. Do you just compartmentalize things so you can keep working when you’re at the center of something like this?”
Something as generic as “Do you understand that you have hurt some people who believed in you and your work for decades?” or “When something like The Hangover 2 thing happens and a guy like Todd Phillips is trying to be supportive, but he ends up having to pass, does that bring home to you that your words, drunken or not, have made a profound impact on some people in your community of colleagues?” or alternately, “When you get an offer, in principle, like Hangover 2, does it concern you that even though it would get a lot of attention in the media, that you are now being hired to be a punchline and not an actor?”
I would consider those all pretty soft questions for him, because they all allow him to dismiss his culpability if he chose to do so. Now, if it was a serious interview, by me or anyone else, the follow-ups to questions like that is where it gets tough… and interesting.
At the very least, he could have been asked about other celebrities in this position and whether he sympathizes with them, from Tyson to Lohan to Ryder. He gave Downey a break in “The Singing Detective.” Besides Downey being an uber-talented performer, what caused him to look past the problems Downey had been having and to risk making a movie with him in the lead?
But ironically, the interview was much more about the tabloid stuff than about the work… Weiner showed no insight or interest in his actual work… but was basically all softballs lobbed so he could make his mea culpas without taking any real responsibility, occasionally interrupted by Weiner making the excuses for him before he could even bother.
Finally… my dislike of this interview is not about Nikki. It’s crap wherever published. But the hypocrisy of Deadline, pretending to be serious about truth-telling and then turning more and more into a gossip rag that will run anything that feeds its need for attention and page views is something I hold against Nikki. If she didn’t so clearly hate herself, I would think she was in more denial than Gibson. But mostly, it’s a sad lie. But many people want to believe it too. And it’s not just hypocrisy… it really does lower the bar for all the journalists who think what she is doing is “success.” She shits all over my profession and makes it embarrassing to be in this field.
dont get the James Lipton shot. he is there to discuss the actors craft, not personal life and scandals. i like james lipton.
I dunno Dave, I like your stuff a lot and read your blog daily, but if you’d asked Gibson this…
“Do you understand that you have hurt some people who believed in you and your work for decades?”
or this…
“When something like The Hangover 2 thing happens and a guy like Todd Phillips is trying to be supportive, but he ends up having to pass, does that bring home to you that your words, drunken or not, have made a profound impact on some people in your community of colleagues?”
I would have thought you were being a real dick. Sorry, but that’s how it sounds to me. You couldn’t come across as more judgemental, patronizing and condescending if you tried. Perhaps that would have been deliberate on your part, but it still would have made you seem a dick.
For the record, you rock and are not a dick, but these questions are pretty awful. I don’t see the huge problem with what Gibson was asked by Deadline, and I’m normally with you when you attack that site and it’s reporters and softball interviews generally.
*its*
EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET has cousins, uncles, dads, brothers who’ve done prison time or slapped their wives or driven drunk or who drop uncomfortable racial jokes around the holiday dinner table. Guess what, they usually don’t turn their backs on those dudes, they support them in court and visit them in prison and still keep in touch with them even when some of their behavior is deplorable.
If EVERY PERSON EVER can still forgive their FAMILY MEMBERS for their transgressions, why should they care what a movie star they’ll never know does, why get THAT worked up about Mel Gibson?
Mel Gibson is a piece f shit, that’s why Lex. He;’s holocaust denying, women beating, and anti-semitic piece of shit that deserves as many punches to the face he has given women over the years. If he were my family, I would be done with the motherfucker, and hope he had a good life getting the shit kicked out of him. Some actions you can forgive but the repeat offender thing you just have to cut your loss with, and walk away.
Oh yeah Mr. Realization, I could give a shit what you think about boobs. No one’s asking if you are scared of them. It’s more to do with this being a blog people visit at work and having boobs on it CAUSES MOTHERFUCKING PROBLEMS.
I don’t know, Adam. Hasn’t he hurt people? Isn’t someone like Zack G, who pushes the boundaries himself, having an issue with Gibson be something for Gibson to look at and not just roll his eyes about or offer up bromides about just getting past it?
The problem with the interview was less often what was asked than the giant gaping hole in what was not asked.
Gibson is not the devil, though I think LexG is working awfully hard to minimize what we absolutely know, 100%, he did. And we have reason to believe he was not 100% innocent regarding accusations from the woman he left his family for after he knocked her up.
But what do you think the role of a journalist is, Adam? The judgements on Gibson are already out there, whether I agree with them or not. The role of the journalist in a situation like this, as I see it, is not to condemn as though you already have all the answers, but to ask questions that don’t dance around what everyone knows to be the situation. “Poor you… that mean bunch on Hangover 2… how could they be upset about your anti-Semitic ravings that you have never really owned up to… did those mean men hurt your feelings?” That’s what this interview is.
That is not to say that you need to pull out, “So, you hate Jews… at least when you are drunk… don’t you understand that your father is an asshole who brainwashed you and you are perpetuating the hate? No wonder those guys on Hangover 2 didn’t want to be associated with you!”
I don’t see, “Do you realize that you have hurt people who have supported you in the past?” as a very tough question. He’s hurt me… and not because I care much about drunks spouting off… but because I loved who he presented himself as and his work, as a star and as a director and as a producer via ICON. He’s pissed all over that and I can’t appreciate the great things he has done without the stupid, personal, angry, sad crap lingering around it. He doesn’t owe me anything. I am not a colleague of his. But my loss is real for me.
And keep in mind, I SCREAMED about Roger Friedman lying about Passion of the Christ to try to damage Gibson and the film. I did feel the movie was anti-Semitic, but the story is anti-Semitic and it didn’t make me angry. That would be like being enraged by Romeo & Juliet because it promotes young teens being in serious relationships. Gibson didn’t make the story up… it’s almost 2000 years older than him, whether I agree or not. Is Moses too anti-Arab in The Ten Commandments?
But none of this is the point. Maybe the wording on those questions, as read by you, seem harsher than I hear them in my head. Maybe not. The goal is not to tell the interviewee how you feel, but to get them to express how they feel. And when someone has been through as much as Gibson has been through/put himself through, you need to address those issues like an adult if you are a remotely serious journalist.
My favorite part of the interview is the accidental?deliberate? timing of release the day before Good Friday.
E.g., on Thursday, Deadline marked the crucifixion of Gibson with a ceremonial article…
“I did feel the movie was anti-Semitic, but the story is anti-Semitic and it didn’t make me angry.” The freakin’ story is anti-Semitic? Er, David: Do you really want to say something like this on Good Friday of all days? Or are you as tone-deaf as you’ve accused other people of being?
Well I certainly agree with your take on what journalism should be, and I agree that these questions fall some way short of that mark. But expecting serious journalism from Deadline is kind of pointless, as is pointing out when they don’t manage it. And I don’t think all news outlets need to engage in the same sort of journalism anyway (the web would be boring if they did.) Sites like Deadline do serve a purpose. This wasn’t a revelatory interview but it wasn’t the car crash I think you are making it out to be and hearing something from Gibson is better than hearing nothing. It is worth pointing out that on the BBC website the second most read story today is a report about this exact interview and Gibson’s reponse to the Hangover 2 question, which is quite interesting. Clearly people (at least in the UK) are interested in Gibson and what he has to say. He was never going to put himself in front of , however much more enlightening that may have been.
I didn’t read the piece in question but I thought some of those questions could be pretty good “ins” to talk about some of the hot button topics surrounding Gibson. In as much as a piece could be a softball, fluff number to help the star and drive eyeballs to the publication, it’s also possible for piece to be more about the interviewer. Nancy Grace may pride herself on always asking the tough questions but in her quest to beat up her opponents and take them to task, I’ve never felt like I’ve been informed or enlightened or gotten some new insight. Her show is just as unwatchable to me as Access Hollywood for completely the opposite reasons.
I know there’s a lot of spin doctors who like to surmise and project based on their preconceived notions but often times what someone doesn’t say can be just as telling as what is spoken. Obviously, someone needs to be asked about something before it’s assumed something is being avoided but sometimes things such as arrogance, lack of compassion, bigotry, shortsightedness can be gleaned from an interview just as easily as the who, what, when, where, how and why.
Per a post by Ginger earlier in this thread, I’d disagree with your assessment that a lack of charge means innocence. Much like people assume guilt based on the fact that an indictment was handed down.
Per Gibson himself, I was a big fan. I was glad when Braveheart won all the awards it did and would always stop to watch if I was ever flipping channels and it was on. I also liked him in a lot of other stuff. Now, I have no desire to hear from him. I really don’t believe I carry in hate in my heart for the guy but like seeing broccoli on pizza, I just have no appetite for anything with him. It’s not like I feel he owes me anything or I need to be convinced of a change, I just want to move on from him. There’s got to be plenty of other talents I’d be surprised by and hope to see new prosperous careers.
I guess one last thing in general, I’m real sick of the spotlight being shown on people the moment they screw up or we get a glimpse at his or her character flaw. Quit validating bad behavior. It’s one thing to get both sides of a story but lauding selfish, condemnable outbursts or patterns is just nauseating.
“I don’t think all news outlets need to engage in the same sort of journalism anyway”
I have no problem with people printing whatever they feel they need to print. But if you are going to claim it’s journalism, sorry, there is a standard.
If you can get Nikki to admit she is a gossip columnist and a huckster for her sources, I will be happy to never write about what she does again. The reason I stay on it is that she does claim to be a serious journalist who is after truth. And others get sucked into thinking her standard for herself is legit. And that’s when it all starts sliding down into the crevice.
On the other hand: The questions that David suggested are not merely appropriate, they are excellent. To give credit where it is due — and I know, David, that you will expect to see pigs flying outside your window at any moment — they indicate both sensitivity to the subject’s feelings and journalistic professionalism.
GIBSON POWER.
Nobody feels the need to distance themselves from the onscreen works or public persona of Ricky Gervais, or Madonna, or Bill Maher, or Josh Brolin, or Kiefer Sutherland, or Matthew Broderick, or Tim Allen, or ROMAN FUCKING POLANSKI THE HERO OF HOLLYWOOD WHERE’S THE PETITION SON, or Lady Gaga, or Ryan Murphy, or Aaron Sorkin, or Vitamin Water pitchman and ex-crack dealer and violent criminal 50 Cent, or The MaSheen (okay not the best example there), or Nic Cage, or Steven Tyler, or Vince Neil, or Patton Oswalt, or that black guy who played ROC…
It’s just Mel where people pull a T.O. and go all, “I just don’t need to ever hear from him ever again and wish he would go away.”
If Madonna got pulled over doing 90 on the PCH and ranted, “Catholics are a bunch of fucking IDIOTS,” even Catholics would’ve shrugged it off.
And Mel’s Tapes are THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. I listen to them ALL the time. Sounds like every day in every marriage in America. MEL RULES.
LexG: I am assuming that you keep bringing up Matthew Broderick’s name because of the fatal auto mishap in Ireland several years back. And I correct?
Yes. And I like Matthew Broderick and thus it doesn’t give me any great “gotcha!” joy to bring it up, it was a tragedy and shouldn’t be dragged out just as a straw man argument to support Gibson, who dug his own grave, but…
Some ranting audiotapes and drunken prejudice aren’t really in the SAME MOTHERFUCKING BALLPARK as actually killing other innocent people. Obviously the good-nature guy from The Producers and WarGames isn’t the Night Stalker, but it’s been long forgotten and no sane journalist would feel compelled to put MB on the spot about it, nor should they. Leave Mel alone.
Actually, LexG, Matthew Broderick freely discussed the tragedy with me (and, I have no doubt, several other journalists) way back when Glory was released. I would assume it hasn’t come up in more recent interviews because he dealt with it in a straightforward fashion more than 15 years ago. Maybe Mel could take a tip from MB. Until he does, trust me, his problems won’t go away.
And let’s not forget one of Chris Rock’s most all-time famous and hilarious lines, re OJ: “I’m not sayin’ he should’ve killed her… but I UNDERSTAND.”
I like how Leah is a big fan and supporter of Oksana; By that logic, if a MAN tried to steal half of Leah’s bank account and tried to blackmail her and keep her from seeing her kids, I’m SURE she’d be as sunshine and roses in her interactions with a scheming man as she expects LORD GIBSON to be with a hateful gold-digger.
Joe, thanks for that, and I can appreciate that… But moving away from Broderick then, why is Mad Mel expected to deal with his issues in a head-on way and become a sheepish, neutered post-therapy douche, but Charlie Sheen (whose laundry list of gems puts Gibson to shame) is EMBRACED for being our good-time TV pal?
Gibson should just say FUCK IT and do MEL’S KORNER videos every day, doing his Stooges riffs and standing at a PULPIT from his church and telling everyone to fuck off. It would be awesome.
LexG: I, too, am an admirer of Mel Gibson’s work as an actor and filmmaker. And I can understand why some long-time friends and associates — like Jodie Foster, for example — might want to remain loyal to him. But he has said and done things that simply are not acceptable to many folks. And, yes, I count myself in that number. Now, if you want to jeer at me, or call me a wuss, or say my judgment is impeded and I’m too damn sensitive because I dealt with abused women when I was a welfare worker several years ago, and I have been an amateur student of the Holocaust before and after I visited Auschwitz, well, OK, fine. But I am surprised that an intelligent person like yourself isn’t at least a bit critical of Gibson.
good grief people, mel gibson WAS charged with a count of criminal battery in a court of law – there is absolutely no ifs, ands, or buts about it, it is a matter of public record.
to which he then plead ‘no contest, people v west’, and was sentenced accordingly. that is in a nutshell being prosecuted for a crime, entering a plea, and being sentenced. it’s not rocket science. this notion that mel was not charged with a crime is absolutely hilarious.
the sherriff’s dept was aware of the assault allegation early on, the wire tapping was deemed legal, mel admitted on tape to punching oksana while she was holding their baby, the photo evidence was deemed legit and is damning, there was an investigation of the assault that took some time to complete (in conjunction with an investigation of oksana’s actions), and then CHARGES WERE brought against mel and mel only. this is the factual sequence of events, there is no ‘grey area’, but the insistence of such is rather fascinating.
(i don’t know about anybody else, but if i was accused on the phone of punching someone in the face while they were holding our new baby – something i did not do – i would not readily admit it with a magnificent ‘you fucking deserved it!’ exclamation; no, i’d say “what the fuck are you talking about, i’ve never done any such thing”; and if was then charged with criminal battery – something i did not do – i would not plead guilty with an obscure qualifier that means i’m accepting my punishment just as if i plead guilty without stating my guilt and face my sentence accordingly. face it, mel apologists, he popped his baby mama in the teeth in a fit of rage. deal with it.)
and who said mel gibson is ‘the devil’ or a monster? no, he’s just an abusive asshole, far more mundane. i can still watch ‘lethal weapon’ (i just did, the other day with my boy), and i can also know that mel is a deeply troubled, abusive man who i would not care to be anywhere around.
and ginger/lex: do not invoke my name you festering ignoramus, you are beyond a joke
(DP: apart from the fact that you clearly don’t know the difference between sexism and misogeny, you can rationalise your boobie fixation on your site till the cows come home – i don’t give a toss about boobs, neither here nor there to me i got my own, and i’m most certainly not “scared” of them – but you fail to understand that a nude shot of gibson – and he’s done several nude scenes – would have been the perfect subversive objectification/humiliation of him to headline this thread, but never mind, defend your boobies with honour. you’re far more comfortable picturing me burning down your house with my ‘misogeny’ torch, so be it)
Okay, Leah. But I don’t think Lohan was being objectified or humiliated in the photo I ran nor do I have any interest in doing either thing to Gibson.
Perhaps you should educate us all with your thoughts of the difference between sexism and misogyny. I’m pretty sure I know the difference, but I’m always happy to learn more.
Leah, fix my dinner, WOMAN. And you better not overcook it. No get off the computer and back into the kitchen and pipe down.
“if i was accused on the phone of punching someone in the face while they were holding our new baby – something i did not do – i would not readily admit it with a magnificent ‘you fucking deserved it!’ exclamation”
Listen to the tape again. That’s not how it goes, that’s not what he says. He backs off at that point and says something like, “Oh, you’re all angry now.” He doesn’t say “You fucking deserved it.”
I should know, I listen to that tape once or twice a week when I need a good laugh. YOU MAKE ME WANNA SMOKE!
GIBSON = More like GODson.
Let’s assume, for sake of argument, that Oskana G. didn’t violate the law when she recorded Gibson without his knowledge and kept the tapes as evidence to be used in her child custody court hearings. How do you then make the leap to it being okay that she leaked them to the press, in violation of a court order, and then brazenly lied about doing so by claiming she had no knowledge of how they might have been acquired or released? Mel Gibson may, indeed, be a piece of shit, but theirs was a private discussion that had no business being leaked, the tapes are clearly a case of “GOTCHA!” button-pushing involving someone with a known temper while drunk and she did it only to be vindictive, try to destroy his career and, yes, attempt to shake him down and extort him, all the while racking up millions in legal fees by switching lawyers the way some people change socks, then having the audacity to stick him with the bills. Spousal abuse is reprehensible and there is never a legitimate excuse for it. But the fact remains that she, too, is a piece of money-grubbing human garbage, looking out for herself, not the best interests of her child. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but let’s not make her into some feminist martyr.
who said oksana is a feminist martyr? and ‘let’s not’, shillfor, who would be ‘lets’, you, who clearly thinks she is to equally to blame for mel’s behavior and a piece of “garbage”? sickening. and the only source that she tried to extort gibson came from gibson’s camp, she was intensively investigated and no charges brought.
and ginger:
WRONG. he absolutely says, ‘you fucking deserved it’, after she says, “what kind of woman hits a man”, get your ears checked. or are you sure you’re not listening to a scrubbed/edited version of the tapes from one of your glorious ‘i hate women!’ sites where you and “ginger” and your ilk can listen to the tapes and woman-hate to your heart’s delight with your tubs of vaseline? that he says, “you fucking deserved it’ on tape is IRREFUTABLE, so sorry. there is more than one reference to the assault on the tapes, however, perhaps you’re missing out on the best bits, psycho boy. off you go and have a proper listen to the unedited tapes
I think leahnz is on her period!
Big Perm:
Now you are just baiting her, much the way Oskana baited Mel. That’s the standby sexist thing to say when a woman gets angry or opinionated and it’s neither sporting nor appropriate in this context.
LET THE RECORD SHOW THAT I DEFENDED LEAHNZ
how clever, perm! (how about you, are you constantly on the rag? that might sorta explain your ongoing low-grade dickheadedness at least)
oh and shillfor, you can stay off my side anytime. perm couldn’t bait me on his best day, sorry boys (and i’m so not angry right now it’s not even funny, i can hardly even keep my eyes open, i took a muscle relaxant earlier cuz i munted my leg)
I don’t think there is anything irrefutable about tapes that were sold to TMZ. I don’t know where to hear the “unedited tapes” or if there is any reason to believe they were unedited.
Not a fan of Oksana.
But that doesn’t make Mel an innocent either.
Any time there is no room for a middle idea of what happened, I tend to think the middle is where the truth most likely is.
leahnz, what if I told you I’M a woman?
Did I just BLOW your mind?
Oh, and you never answered DP’s question. How is taking a screengrab of Mel Gibson’s ass from a character portrayal in a movie (therefore out of context) the same thing as running a photo that Lindsey Lohan posed for? And was she objectifying/humiliating herself when she did it?
Leah: Sorry for sticking up for you, geez. Re: Gibson/Oskana, no I certainly don’t think she was responsible for his ACTUAL BEHAVIOR (i.e. spousal abuse), nor do I defend it in any way, shape or form. I do think, however, that she was more than partially responsible for provoking his RECORDED PHONE RANT after the fact and I think she was 100% responsible for leaking and SELLING it to Radar/National Enquirer, in violation of court order, which she has lied about and denied. Also have to wonder about her motivation re: timing; why not call 911 the minute she was struck instead of leaking recordings and photos of dubious provenance months after the fact in an orchestrated media campaign? Again, calling her on exploitative, greedy, “media whore” behavior is not to excuse Gibson or insinuate that she “deserved” it, but yes, she is a piece of garbage, as is he.
so DP, are you saying that mel didn’t say, ‘you fucking deserved it!’ in the tapes and that it’s been tampered with to make it sound that way? because from my understanding the recordings used for the court case were authenticated as not having been edited in any way (this is what my journo friend told me), that is one of the reasons it took so long to complete the investigation.
there’s a fascinating rationale that a person is not responsible for their behaviour, dependant on another person’s actions so blame can be shifted, esp. in the case of abusive men.i’m not a “fan” of oksana, she seems like a silly woman who has made some dubious choices, but the fact is nobody really knows who leaked the tapes and why, if it was a misguided attempt to get ‘the public’ on her side in her legal proceedings; but it’s a matter of record that she turned down an extremely large gag order payment from mel after being advised by her lawyers to take it, and that claims of extortion were found to be without merit, mel trying to misdirect attention away from from his own culpability.
this is not about oksana, what ever she did or didn’t do, becuase that has nothing to do with the fact that mel is an abusive, violent man who is in serious need of help. he physically assaulted her, and she is entirely within her rights to seek justice, and to be concerned about the custody of her child. how she – or her handlers – went about doing this is a completely separate issue.
christ, sorry for typos, i’m on drugs
so shillfor, you’re insinuating that she in fact did not get punched in the face and that it was all a scam? i think that’s rather spurious and somehow i trust the sheriff’s’ dept’s investigation over someone who actually has no real knowledge of events and is clearly not objective.
And whoever’s side one is one, Perm’s comment it out of line, echoing Lex’s endless baiting of Leah. Could happily live without either fisherman fishing… and without Leah taking the bait.
edited to say: uh, how exactly did i ‘take the bait’ by making a very brief comment about perm’s fantastic originality and saying sorry, i’m not angry and on drugs? please. i’m on topic here, unlike several others making this about me, as is so often the case.
oh, also, this notion that oksana ‘baited’ mel by STAYING CALM on the phone is hilarious. let’s blame oksana for mel: being drunk (if he even was) and completely losing his shit in the face of someone – wait for it – being calm. that whore!
I thought it was funny, because of course it’s the cliche when a woman is ranting to ask her if she’s on her period…but anyone who reads the blog knows leahnz is always a blowhard.
Anyway, isn’t there a good conversation around here? I finally saw Social Network. It was good.
Ugh, I said “good” twice in that post. I’ll change my assessment of Social Network to “great” and my wistful thinking about a “good” conversation to be a “fun” one instead.
Does anyone watch the tv show Community? They had an all-time classic episode last night.
And with that said, I’m off to get nachos!
Mel Gibson has brought me THIRTY YEARS of DELIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT. Oksana has done nothing that I’ve ever heard, seen or enjoyed, aside from annoying my favorite actor. Celebrities, AS ALWAYS, are more important than anyone, honestly– honestly– if someone gave Gibson CART FUCKING BLANCHE to drive around Los Angeles stone-cold MURDERING anybody who pissed him off, I would be ALL the fuck for it, as long as it wasn’t anybody I liked.
I also wanna know what Mayberry families people come from that they HAVEN’T heard or engaged in epic, profane screeds like Gibson’s ALL THEIR LIFE. That’s how people act, what’s the big deal.
Oh, yeah, and… he definitely does NOT say “you deserved it” when she says that “what kind of a man hits a woman with a child” thing. He does NOT.
I also don’t believe he ever hit her. She sucks, he rules.
I also don’t know what a “woman hating site” is, or why the Wingnut from Down Under is hellbent on labeling me or anyone else here a misogynist. All I ever DO here is praise women. Jesus.
listen and weep, sadman: (about 7:20 onward, after she tells him she’s afraid for her life and says ‘what kind of man hits a woman with a baby” a few seconds later he clearly says, “you fucking deserrrrvvved it”. if you can’t hear that, get thee to an audiologist, stat. it could not be any clearer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLtm5018cv0
cant wait to hear you excuse that away!
also, someone else pointed out after reading this thread, which i thought was a good point and i’m too drug addled to have phrased it, was it’s fascinating how people blindly believe mel when he claims that oksana’s motivation was to extort $ without a shred of proof other than that mel claims this was the case, and yet people still refuse to believe that oksana took one in the grill in spite of varified legitimate recordings with his admission of guilt and his extreme rage and threatening to kill, verified photographic evidence, and an investigation by the sheriffs dept that results in mel being charged with a count of battery.
oh and i just can’t resist this gem: “all i ever do here is praise women”, lol, priceless
(newsflash: that you think perving on jailbait-to-24 yrs-or-whatever-your-cut-off-point-is-girls so that they can fulfill your ‘submissive non-threatening little girls’ fantasies while routinely demeaning, degrading and insulting older women and often women in general, calling them names, putting them down and showing callous disrespect for half the human race, makes you anything less than a misogynist is absolutely classic. but entirely predictable, you’re so easy)
eta: did that recording actually shut lex up? woah
There’s no way to prove this to Lushnz, and in fairness NO REASON why she should care, but ironically in “real life” I’m not much of a guy’s guy, I’m kind of a pussy who HATES meatheaded male bonding and jockish competition, and to the extent that I have “friends,” most of them are female, circling 40, educated and could probably be described as “feminist.” And to a person, they all think my riffs are HILARIOUS and that my fetishes are almost absurdly innocuous.
Actually I’m 90% sure most of them assume I’m kind of a gaylord.
jeeze, lex, so quick to call someone else a ‘lush’ when you actually hold the record for alcoholic, suicidal rants…are those the ‘riffs’ your feminist ‘friends’ find HILARIOUS?
No, they think it’s funny and fun that I like submissive and girly young chicks in little outfits having pillow fights, painting their toenails and wearing LITTLE SAILOR SUITS. Because it’s harmless and ridiculous. Oh, and because EVERY SINGLE HETERO MAN IN THE WORLD LIKES CUTE YOUNGISH (18-24) GIRLS WHO ARE PASSIVE AND NONTHREATENING. Geez.
Scoot, since you seem friendly and normal and informative in the days, and belligerent and cruising for fights around the same time every night, I’d hypothesize that your booze intake puts me AND Lushnz to shame.
Oh, yeah: I MAINTAIN that I am right about those Gibson tapes, specifically tape 2. I also maintain I wouldn’t like Mel any less if he blew up half the state in a volcanic tequila-fueled rage.
GO MEL. MEL FOR PRESIDENT 2012.
as usual, sport, you would be wrong…about, pretty much, everything….
all right, hombre, whatever… no point in a third night of this bullshit in one week. it’s so played out.
In the words of the mighty Richard Fish:
Bygones.
Yeah, Mel Gibson is a drunken piece of shit. Fuck him and fuck every film he’s ever been in, Russell Crowe is better than him, and at least he got over his belligerent fuck-hole phase.
Leaving aside your usual moralistic hyperbole (“What are you, religious?”), IO, there are a whole lot of things Gibson can do, which Crowe really can’t pull off. I am a huge Crowe fan too, but JUST TALKING ABOUT ACTING and not your little sports-fan vendetta-like need to ALWAYS pit two things against each other:
Mel could do serious drama, romance, broad comedy, light comedy, be dashing, be epic, be sleazy, be small-scale… Pretty much all the movie star bases covered; Crowe is pretty much perennially staying in his no-bullshit guy-code MAN OF INTEGRITY MODE. Which he’s GREAT AT, he’s an imposing force and actually an underrated actor, but he doesn’t always have the lightness or silliness that Gibson could pull off. Sometimes he’s one step away from Clive Owen on the DOUR-O-METER.
It’s not hyperbole. Some of us have a code and once you cross that line, fuck you. It’s that simple. Seriously, Oksana sings the closing song of Edge of Darkness that she CO-WROTE WITH GIBSON! There’s a reason that happened and why he started showing her off last year. The fact that he literally got on the phone and told her to “SHUT UP AND BLOW ME”, puts him beyond contempt.
Now, if you want to start taking shots at me brother, then we can go down that road all Batman vs JLA style, but you seem to not understand that Mel is basically the predecessor of Crowe. Thus, the two are naturally pitted against one another, and Crowe is superior in every way. Go look at Crowe’s filmography. He can do it all but as he’s gotten older, much like with Mel, he’s been given certain roles to play and he plays them effortlessly.
Again, Mel is a punk bitch that should get his head split for being a holocaust denying puke fuck. Let alone a special kind of asshole that beats women. The fact that you save your hyperbole for ridiculous rants about celebrity (Seriously, that rant up there about celebrity, even if it’s IN CHARACTER, is such fucking bullshit that I hope you didn’t post it with a straight face) and I do mine for morality is what makes us different but make no mistake: if the Beaver starred Crowe, it would be a better movie. You can take that to the bank… yo.
TEAM MEL.
So you support the anti-semitic, drunk, and girlfriend beater? GREAT CHOICE!
Batman vs. JLA? Wait, Batman actually took on the entire freakin’ Justice League of America? Damn.
Okay, can we all agree that Mel’s crazy, but he’s made some great movies…?
What’s the deal with Renner replacing Damon? I thought they wanted to reboot with a younger actor? There’s a year difference (’70 vs. ’71) between the two?
I thought Crowe was great in that overlooked vineyard movie. Its failure pretty much guarenteed his men of integrity only roles.
Hcat, that’s A GOOD YEAR, and he is pretty damn good in it.
Pete: it’s THE LEGACY of BOURNE! Which apparently means Renner is playing a character like Bourne or some shit? Seriously, it’s just a QUEEN OF THE DAMENED rights movie, so here’s hoping it’s better rights movie than most of them.
Joe, of course he did, He’s Batman after all.
I dunno: I think J’onn J’onzz could kick his ass.
Fire freaks the Martian out, Bruce knows this, and would use it if needed. Nice of you to give dap Manhunter, Joe. He’s easily one of my favourite DC characters.
leahnz wrote: “oh, also, this notion that oksana ‘baited’ mel by STAYING CALM on the phone is hilarious. let’s blame oksana for mel: being drunk (if he even was) and completely losing his shit in the face of someone – wait for it – being calm. that whore!”
I’ve only heard snippets of the tapes, so I don’t know if this applies — but staying calm (or pretending to) while someone else is losing their shit can absolutely be a baiting tactic, especially if there are witnesses to the argument. “See, I’m being calm and he’s being a crazy person. Therefore, it’s clear that I’m the victim and have done nothing wrong.” Since Oksana was recording the argument, she would’ve known it wasn’t in her best interest to rant and rave and sound as whacked out as Mel did. Not saying that’s what happened; she may always be cool and collected. But the dynamic I’m describing is not science fiction.
J’onn J’onzz is to the DC Universe what Fozzie Bear is to The Muppets — a shamefully under-rated star.
Gibson didn’t vote to just cut Medicare and Medicaid, he voted to destroy them. Seniors would no longer have their healthcare fully covered, but would instead get a voucher from the government so they could theoretically go out and purchase insurance on the open market http://bit.ly/hkJUWm