Are we really to be surprised? Gibson's father has made his thoughts well known. He is a Holocaust denier. His belief: Many people died in World War II and some of them were Jews.

I agree completely with Emerson: these are his true thoughts. The apology holds no water.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND's John Nash, made similar statements and also later recanted, but he had a reasonable excuse: mental illness, which also led him to construct vast conspiracy theories. Mel Gibson has no such excuse. Drunk or not, he has rendered everything he says or does, from this moment on, tremendously suspect.

I will continue to enjoy the Gibson movies I've already seen, as my opinion of those was formed when I saw them. But it's difficult to imagine ever supporting his work ever again.

Jim, isn't it odd that he claimed to own Malibu? Everybody knows that Jackie Treehorn owns Malibu. None other than the police chief of Malibu himself told a certain private detective named Lebowski (a k a The Dude, or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing) that Treehorn "pulled a lot of water in this town." And isn't it odd, too, that both the Dude and Mel were collared on Pacific Coast Highway on suspicion of inebriation? Could Treehorn be behind both incidents? Granted, the Dude was only ranting about the Eagles, but is it possible that Mel was at Treehorn's before the incident, perhaps jumping up and down on the trampoline and listening to obscure Henry Mancini tracks? Could Mel have received one of Jackie's "mean Caucasians"? If the Dude and Walter are not deep into an inter-league bowling tournament, perhaps you could have the Dude investigate this further. Hmm...

JE: You are so right, TLRHB! This really ties the whole incident together.

This incident reminds me of a great quote in the classic movie Amadeus. As Mozart is defending himself before the emporer he slips up and offends everyone in the room. Then he says, "Forgive me... I am a vulgar man, but I assure you my music is not." Just because Mel Gibson makes great movies doesn't mean he's all that great a guy. Although that's sad, I hope he continues to make great films.

Wait, what's this news flash about Mel Gibson making great movies? Have archivists unearthed a previously unseen collection?

Seriously, let's not let this incident make us lose sight of what's important: Mel is a rotten director. Decent actor. Rotten, rotten director. And it's got nothing to do with his various "social theories."

Hmmm...so Mel Gibson has revealed himself to be an arrogant, condescending, misogynistic, anti-Semitic jerk? Wow! In other shocking news, fire is hot and Lance Bass is gay.

I never liked Mel much as an actor, and I like him even less as a director. His numerous anti-gay statements didn't help matters. "The Passion" was without a doubt the most digusting movie I've ever seen in my life.

JE: Funny you should mention that. Mel's Revelation made me flash on that moment from "Austin Powers": "Yeah, and I can't believe Liberace was gay. I mean, women loved him! I didn't see that one coming." So, Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. Christians love him!...

Justin, are you trying to imply that Mel Gibson movies aren't vulgar? Did you see the Passion of the Christ?

A person in the film industry attacking Jews? That's like a person in the bratwurst-industry calling all Germans for Nazi's...

I'm not sure that alcohol releases a person's true thoughts or feelings. Alcohol is no litmus test for truth. It would be truer to say that alcohol makes a person conceive certain things and then release them, rather than merely release them.

You can say it releases fickle feelings, or an array of strong negativity and hate that exists inside a person, precisley because of the alcohol. But to say it releases that person's true intention, true heart-thought, true vision? Give me a break.

If anything it covers it up. It induces a person to do and say things in the sway of extreme vanity. Yeah, you get to act as a loud big shot in front of police officers using all sorts of offending words; you magnify the way other people appear to act, thinking that you see through them, as certain drunk people so often think.

How does someone drunk in a police station have 'truer' precedence over the same person sober during a public statement? I'm not saying that a sober public statment is truer than someone's police-station-vitriol, but that both can be equally false.

I think Gibson has made it clear in the past that his tongue often wags of its own accord; it is slightly ridiculous to think he has a deeply hidden secret agenda.

He has also made it clear in the past that he is no push-over; yet he bent over backwards during the production of his film, 'The Passion of the Christ' to make sure, through process of deletion and wide discussion with groups, that nothing in the film would be offensive to Jews. Oh, yeah, he's a Nazi for sure!

How genuine is someone's cry against anti-Semitism, when it is pervaded with their own bigotry, namely their own anti-Christian attitude? (ie. 'So, Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. Christians love him!...')

JE: I hear the sound of irony whizzing past your head. I don't disagree with what you say about the effects of alcohol, but it's like what they say about hypnotism: It can never make you do anything that's totally out of character. (I grew up in a house with an alcoholic, so I've done my homework.) Anyone who says the things Gibson said, under the circumsances in which he said them, is by definition anti-Semitic. Nobody says those things if they don't think them -- that's what bigotry is. You can try NOT to say what you believe, but when you blurt it out, even if it sounds worse than he meant it to... well, there's no way around it. What do Jews have to do with getting pulled over for drunk driving? Nothing. Therefore, Mel's outburst must have come from someplace else -- like his own head. The guy knows who he is, and that people have accused him and his films of anti-Semitism many times in the past. So, if his previous denials and explanations ever meant anything, why would he start spewing hate against the Jews when he's stopped in Malibu? Some people think anything one says can be excused by drunkenness. Not so. He wasn't even that drunk, as the breathalyzer test showed, so it's not like he was unaware of his surroundings, or hallucinating. If I got pulled over and started yelling about how Protestants cause all the world's wars out of absolutely nowhere, I think that would pretty clearly indicate I had strong feelings against Protestantism -- no question about it. People may exaggerate how strongly they feel about something when they're drunk, but they don't just slander an entire religion or ethnicity because it's "the booze talkiing."

As for the Christian remark, maybe you missed the Austin Powers reference: "Yeah, and I can't believe Liberace was gay. I mean, women loved him!" The point is that women loving Liberace had nothing to do with him being gay -- just as Christians loving Mel Gibson has nothing to do with him spouting anti-Semitic bile when he's drunk, even though he tries to use his Christian faith as a shield, by saying he's forbidden to be anti-Semitic because his faith doesn't allow it. Does he discard his faith when drunk, too? (If so, I guess "The Passion" won't save him -- he must believe he's hellbound for sure. When he's sober.) Why didn't he start complaining about how much he hates breathalyzers, or drunk-driving laws, or nighttime? Better yet, why didn't he get all worked up and proclaim how much he just LOVES Jews? Or Protestants? Or Roman Catholics? Or Muslims?

"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark.... [Note: It's the remark that is inexusable, not the anti-Semitism itself.] But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith."

Your added note (attempt at profound analysis?) disregards the first part of the released statement: "for anyone who thinks.... any kind of anti-Semitic remark". Couldn't be more clear that it condemns the anti-Semitism itself. Whether Gibson believes this or not, you've attempted to read something into the apology that's simply not there.

JE: Maybe it's just badly crafted language, but "thinks or expresses" refers to "anti-Semitic remark." It's a peculiar way to phrase it. And you're forgetting, of course, that this is his second apology, after neglecting to address the anti-Semitism the first time. He's got a whole team of people working on this language, and he's parsing it very carefully. You are free to interpret it however you like. Me, I don't believe it for a second. He's sorry, all right. He's sorry he got caught.

i'm not so sure, jim. i've said some odd things i know not to be true when i was drunk (facile example: eating that super extra-hot sauce was not fun, was not going to be fun, and i distinctly remember, although very drunk, that i knew it wouldn't be fun). i'm not saying he was or wasn't telling the truth. i actually don't care one way or the other. but although you say that alcohol can't make someone do something totally out of character, it can "make" (entice?) someone say something they know is stupid and untrue just because...well, because they're drunk. i remember saying things just because they were stupid and untrue ("hey, here's something stupid to say!") the difference is that i've never said anything that severe, and also never to a police officer. but i refuse to act as if i have some sort of grand insight into mel gibson's beliefs because he was drunk.

regardless, though, what a dumb thing to do.

Yes, why did Mel rant and rave suddenly under the influence of alcohol. That's an interesting question one that largely people have pointed the finger at his hatred of an entire ethnicity or religion of people. Consider for a second that none of us know why he said what he said - which none of us do as far as I'm concerned, now allow me to throw out another hypothesis.

Mel coming out of a meeting with a film Producer - who happens to be Jewish. The Jewish Producer is cordial but says he can't be involved with Mel because of his anti-semitic stances. Maybe Mel wants to star in one of the Producer's movies. And Mel, after a couple of drinks, which were handed out earlier to help create a calm environment, instead makes him irrate. As far as he's concerned, what has he done that makes him so anti-semitic, after all he was strongly counciled by the Jewish community in his attempt to make PotC pro-semetic, or at least neutral-semitic. So, they argue, but Mel is denied. He leaves angry as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore. Years of what his Father perhaps believed mix with the alcohol, anger, and shall we say ego - which all combined does make someone far more drunk than their blood alcohol level shows. So when he's pulled over, he's already there, ready to rant - he's probably been ranting in his car, and just needs a good night sleep to simmer down at which time he'll send the Producer some flowers and apologize, but instead he's pulled over mid-rant, and the world is there to see it. Private life is never that private for a public persona. Drunkeness certainly allows a person to forget that.

I think even the arresting officer (Mee was it?) made much more sense of it than anyone here has. Even he's willing to admit, and he was personally attacked, that alcohol makes a person say things they don't mean - I've even seen that before. Emotions and alcohol screw many a person up.

Now, this has just as much validity to me as simply saying Mel is a bigot, which maybe he is, but who the hell are we to point a finger. How many such thoughts go through our little perfect heads each day that if spoke out loud could be considered racist. I lock my door at night when 2 shady African American men walk past my car - if I was drunk and my Mother had been held up by an African American the night before, I might just have a word or two to say to these two hapless victims.

Yes he's racist, yes he's a bigot; these things are so much easier to fling around. It's more difficult to wonder what exactly brought him to that point in time, that led specifically to this break down. Which it very well could have been - an emotional breakdown - again just as much validity.

Or maybe he is a bigot.

JE: I think if this had been an isolated incident, people (like me) would be less likely to pile on Gibson now. I don't like to throw around labels (racist, homophobe, anti-Semite); I'd prefer to describe behavior rather than characterize an entire person. But, after a while, a person goes from abusing alcohol to labeling himself an "alcoholic" (as Gibson has now done). And, after a pattern of anti-Semitic expression, capped by an anti-Semitic outburst, maybe the term "anti-Semite" -- if it means anything at all -- is appropriate. Not all bigots openly express their bigotry (that's what I think was so bogus about "Crash"), but somebody who comes out and actually verbalizes bigotry can hardly expect to avoid being called a bigot.

Responding to your response to me:

I see where you're coming from, but I also wonder what the other instances were in which Gibson portrayed anti-semitism. Are you using "PotC" as an example? Or are there other instances?

Either way, I do hope his wishing to seek help for both issues is sincere. I've most often respected Mel. And why shouldn't he feel bad only because he was caught, I would? Sometimes it's the only way for realization that there is a problem to occur.

JE: You can start with the Wikipedia entry on Gibson, and the sub-section about anti-Semitism, which links to other sources. Most of the accusations are based on PotC, statements made by his father Hutton Gibson" and his association with Holocaust deniers, and his "Traiditionalist Catholic" religious beliefs. In no way did I mean to imply that Gibson shouldn't feel bad he got caught. He most certainly should. And he should feel even worse about what he said. Maybe he does. I guess that's between him and his god. But he shouldn't be exempted from public criticism of what he admits he said and did. He created this storm all by himself, and now he'll just have to weather it.

To Paul Stilwell:

When you talk about Gibson having made "deletions" to PotC to avoid offending Jews, the only thing you could be referring to is Gibson's claim that he removed the line when rabbis declare "may his blood be upon us and our descendants." (This is a line from (only) one of the four gospels, which has been used throughout history to justify the notion that Jews bear 'collective responsibility' for Christ's death.)

It's bad enough that Gibson saw fit to include that dubious line in the first place, but then he lied about taking it out of the film, and used that claim as the centrepiece of his defence of the film as not being anti-Semitic. In fact, the line is still spoken in the (dead-tongue) dialogue -- only the English subtitle was removed. Why wouldn't Gibson remove the spoken line as well?? As Christopher Hitchens pointed out, in non-English-speaking markets around the world (such as Arab countries), the subtitle will presumably be kept intact. And Gibson knows this.