Watch the movies, not the man

In Hollywood, any news is good news ““ especially if
it’s non-news.

A man is pulled over for speeding while under the influence. In
drunken frustration, he shouts a few offensive comments, reportedly
about the peoples of a certain religious persuasion (ahem ““
the Jews ““ ahem).

It’s a little pathetic, but hardly newsworthy.

Except for the fact that this dude happens to be a successful
Hollywood actor, writer and director, and his most recent major
project may arguably have blamed those same religious peoples
(ahem) for the death of Jesus.

On July 28, the popular gossip Web site TMZ.com
“learned” that Mel Gibson had shouted allegedly
unprovoked anti-Semitic remarks at the police officer who pulled
him over the previous night in Malibu for speeding and a DUI
charge. Also, allegedly, the original 14-page police report was
doctored to prevent a public uproar.

Too late.

The allegations (partially confirmed by a published copy of part
of the original report on TMZ) were followed by a public written
apology by Gibson, pandemonium in the Jewish and Hollywood
communities, and a suspiciously coincidental withdrawal on
ABC’s part from a partnership with Gibson

to create a TV mini-series about the Holocaust.

Even if the coincidence is in fact coincidence, imagine the
promotional campaign for the series: “Next month on ABC: The
Holocaust, as told by a man with a grudge against Jewish people and
whose father believes the tragedy never happened.”

It’s like those Coke commercials where you can clearly
tell the actors on screen dislike Coke. They probably never enjoyed
a sip in their lives. That is what acting is all about, though
Gibson arguably doesn’t even pretend to like the Jews.

Two years ago, Gibson’s historical epic “Passion of
the Christ” shook the world with its debatably anti-Semitic
portrayals of Jewish people during the time of Jesus Christ. Many
groups protested and even more simply refused to see the film.

But unlike the anti-climactic success of Ron Howard’s
“The Da Vinci Code” this past spring, the publicity
“Passion” received from the surrounding controversy
brought the film to be the 10th highest-grossing film to date,
surpassing “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as the
highest-grossing independent film and “The Matrix:
Reloaded” as the highest grossing R-rated film, and
ultimately breaking $600 million worldwide.

But anti-religious sentiment and public drunkenness aside
(please see In Touch magazine or YouTube for evidence ““ you
know you want to), it is hard to doubt the success of the
filmmaker’s future career.

Gibson has a job. That job is to make movies. And as long as he
does it well (and avoids being a raving lunatic, as that infamous
“South Park” episode would suggest), why should I care
that he gets drunk and potentially hates my maternal grandparents
and their sweet Passover dinners?

A job is a job. I wouldn’t refuse service from my
fast-food cashier if I somehow knew that he was a serial purse
stealer and made hurtful slurs about white male UCLA
undergraduates. I would accept him for the cashier that he is and
move on with my life.

Just because movies are a public medium by nature ““ and
honestly, we enjoy poking fun at our favorite stars ““ does
not mean that Mel Gibson’s mistake is any worse than a
McDonald’s cashier’s history of thievery. This is not
Enron, where wrongdoing occurred that actually impacted
people’s lives. And even if it were, Enron’s collapse
stemmed from bad decision-making in the workplace. Gibson knows how
to make a movie.

Film is a respected craft, but sometimes filmmakers are taken a
little too seriously. Gibson has a moral responsibility as a public
figure, but he does not have a responsibility to perpetuate
commonly accepted normative attitudes.

So as Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno continue to
make fun at a fellow celebrity’s expense, we can laugh
knowing that it’ll all be OK for Gibson.

Even if he is a bad person, do I really care? Isn’t his
charm still a lethal weapon? Isn’t he still brave at
heart?

Next up for Gibson is “Apocalypto,” a tale about the
ancient Mayans, which conveniently had its release date pushed from
August to December due to bad weather in Mexico. So unless Gibson
suddenly decides to blame the Mayans for everything wrong in the
world (and even if he did), I doubt there will be much of an
uproar.

Dickau asks, “Why can’t we all just get
along?” Tell him what you think at
ddickau@media.ucla.edu.

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