Monday, July 31, 2006

"I can't believe they're the same people that what killed our lord."

Does anyone else remember that brilliant soap opera spoof, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman? (It was apparently so-named because producer Norman Lear thought that anything important said on a soap opera is always said twice.) It ran from 1976-78, and featured Mary Kay Place as Loretta Haggars, Mary Hartman's neighbor who briefly makes it big as a country music star.

Loretta is brought down in a humiliatingly public way on the Dinah Shore Show. After praising the skills of the Jewish professionals in the recording industry, Loretta utters the line quoted in the title of this post.

Dinah is aghast, the studio audience goes still, and Loretta is subsequently unable to salvage her career from the damage done in that moment. And the best part is that she remains, through it all, utterly unable to understand what she did wrong.

Which brings us to Mel Gibson.

Sure, he's apologized for saying "Fucking Jews...the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

But does he really mean it?

I'm loathe to hold anyone's drunken ramblings against them, except...although Mel asserted that The Passion of the Christ was not anti-semitic in its portrayal of Jews, he has never distanced himself or decried the teachings of the weird retroCatholic cult his Dad belongs to, you know, the one that rejects the "Vatican 2" reforms that sorta officially let Jews off the Christian hook for, well, killing their lord and all?

Not only has he never rejected that bizarre group, many of whom, like his Dad, are apparently Holocaust deniers, but he gave them 5 mil of the TPotC profits to expand their compound in Malibu.

Which may have been what prompted Mel to assert in the midst of his DUI arrest that he "owned" the place.

Mel, baby, if you want to "own" Malibu, you better stand in line. Cause you're like the 64th most rich & famous person who lives there, don't kid yourself.

But perhaps his assertion did convince the Sherrif's office, since they did engage in some pretty clumsy attempts to clean up the record of his arrest.

But I think the really burning question in all of this is: How will this affect the production of Mel's tv miniseries on the Holocaust?

And if this incident ends up "fucking" his life and career, well, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Mel's defense:

On the drunkest night of my life, about three decades ago, my mother read me the riot act and I reciprocated by threatening to knock her teeth down her throat.

Then I went outside, threw up, came back in, took a shower, and passed out.

I said a lot of terrible things to my mom that night, but I was literally out of my mind.

Of course, I wasn't currently making a movie about my mom.

Some Guy said...

Didn't he blow like .12? That ain't drunk! I think I'm .12 after using Scope in the morning

RandyLuvsPaiste said...

Apparently, Mel does big charity work for Lee Baca. An outside citizen advocacy group has already busted the Sheriff's Dept. for trying to doctor the arresting officer's report, per the LA Times.

Is anyone surprised?

Anonymous said...

You are right Chris, USA Today reported .012 and he was doing 80 in a 45.

That's about a beer and a half with most folks, and he is already over the top spewing the anti-jew shit.

Sounds like mel is wound tighter than a cheap watch.

GETkristiLOVE said...

Forget about Mel, why don't they bring back Soap?! I loved that show...

Frank Sirmarco said...

Mel's next film: Apoca-looney!

vikkitikkitavi said...

David: I'm sorry, but your mom told me she was asking for it.

Chris: The more I think about it, that's actually the funniest part of this story, that he blew .12! That's nothing! And he's been an alcoholic on and off for years, so you know he's been WAY drunker than that.
So I don't blame the drink. I blame the crazy.

Randyluv: And now we know he's been stopped quite a few times before, too without being ticketed or arrested. Once he apparently wouldn't even end his cell phone call to speak to the officer.

YSCM: I love it when people with millions of dollars go off on rants about how persecuted they are.

GKristiL: Christians were very upset about Soap. They said it was going to be the downfall of civilization. And 30 years later, they're being proven right.

Frank: Mel's next film - The Man Without a Career.

Anonymous said...

In vino veritas.