# Dear Mel Gibson........ **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246 "2010-07-01T22:28:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/141 "2010-07-10T21:31:22Z")
I just listened to the tape. The South Park episode wasn’t really parody after all. Regardless of how much of an ass he is in he is in his own head he really does not seem to have any sense at all when it comes to using his “out loud” voice. If he suspects that his Russian baby mama is a borderline whore/grifter the reasonable thing to do is take cover and go legal. If he suspects she’s a whore on the make, that it would not occur to him that the she would be taping their rancorous calls as leverage speaks to an ego so monsterous and blinkered it staggers the imagination. After the sugar tits episode you’d think he would know better. Re the game plan it’s hard to know what her strategy is in releasing the recordings. Now that she’s shot her bolt, her leverage is gone on that issue. They are not married, so short of child support what’s her payday other than some tabloid money? ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/142 "2010-07-10T21:39:13Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Finally! I scoured the internets for this for literally, like, five minutes, and all I could find that Radar article quoting the audio, and other articles quoting the Radar article quoting the audio. Man, this sounds so crazy, it hardly even seems real. Who says stuff like that? More entertainment will be rationed out to us from [radaronline.com](http://radaronline.com) apparently. They claim they have thirty minutes of recorded nuttery from Mel. But, I hate for you to feel special about your blackness when it comes to Mel. They say he’s got some rants for the “wetbacks” too! ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/143 "2010-07-10T21:51:57Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Regardless of how much of an ass he is in he is in his own head he really does not seem to have any sense at all when it comes to using his “out loud” voice. That’s why I posited that he may just be 3/4 to 5/4 drunk pretty much every waking hour (or at least when he feels impelled to make these calls). This sounds a LOT like stuff I’ve heard blathering out of old guys I got stuck next to at the bar. People react differently to being super-drunk. Some get over-amorous, some get belligerent, some voice their hidden prejudices, some get loud, some get maudlin. Looks like Mel’s just built to go the second and third routes. People really need to know their “drunk personality” and make decisions accordingly (I don’t even mean don’t drink at all, necessarily; I mean, when you start drinking, set the circumstances so that the bad parts of “drunk you” won’t be able to get you in trouble. If you’re prone to think you can drive when you really shouldn’t – leave your keys at home, or take a taxi; if you get into bar fights, drink alone at home; if you get over-amorous, don’t drink around co-workers or even any substantial number of members of the opposite sex; and if you’re Mel Gibson, definitely drink alone at your mansion, switch your phone off so you won’t call your SO, hire a driver or bodyguard to babysit you.). (This is all easy for me to say as my drunk impulses are mainly toward a sullen unfriendly silence culminating in leaving the gathering without saying goodbye and going home to crash – comparatively benign). ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/144 "2010-07-11T00:57:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Remember when Mel Gibson was cool? _The Road Warrior_, _Braveheart_… Heck, he was even OK in _Air America_. Im thinking he did not become the asshole he is today, but rather he was always the asshole he is today, we just weren’t aware. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/145 "2010-07-11T01:39:57Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > His long-time agency has dropped him. IANAHollywoodstar, but that doesn’t sound good. I just read a Reuters article about this and, apparently, almost everybody at that agency hated his guts and would have dropped him years ago. However, they kept him on out of respect for one of the partners who had had a 30+ year relationship with Gibson. Once that partner died, the writing was on the wall. I imagine this most recent fiasco just sped up the inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/146 "2010-07-11T02:01:18Z")
Umm well I bet Mel could let this die for a couple of years and maybe direct some indy type shit. On the screen?? I can’t see how he could pull that off… Can Barbara W have a two hour special with just Mel?? As for the product… kinda torn… I still listen to Miles Davis regularly, and if you know anything about Miles… shit… well… just turn the music up. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/147 "2010-07-11T02:05:12Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Did someone mention klan flavored icecream? Gimme a double scoop. > > What on earth does someone’s racist beliefs have to do with how delicous their ice cream is? > > I don’t know enough about economics or about people’s personal belief system to avoid ‘financing hateful goals’. Was Walt Disney anti-semetic? Should I have taken my daughter to see the Princess and the Frog? Is Walmart abusive and monstrous to their employees? Does Nike run sweatshops? I’m not about to keep up with everyone’s issues that they have. The klan doesn’t like blacks and Jews? That’s their problem. No reason for me to miss out on yummy ice cream. Well, if it was the only ice-cream in town, or the ‘best ice-cream ever OMG you just have to taste this or you’ll have missed out on one of the best taste explosions in the world!’ then that’d be fair enough. If you had a choice of 50 different ice-cream stands, surely you’d take their ownership into account? After all, you have to choose somehow. And there are lots of movies out there. With Gibson, some of the movies he’s directed are unique, and I’d be interested in watching them. But for the other movies, then his behaviour would be one of the factors that I’d take into account when choosing what to watch - not just out of some moral standpoint but because it would affect my viewing of the movie. The wikipedia article on him is interesting; he’s a big philanthropist as well as a bigot - not a cut-and-dried bad guy. Still, I would definitely shy away from watching him in ‘What Women Want’ given what seem to be his opinions about what certain women deserve. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/148 "2010-07-11T02:13:57Z")
Mel’s next film should be _What Aryan Women Want_. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/149 "2010-07-11T02:46:23Z")
> [@descamisado](#): > > Let 'em have it (the word, I mean), and in doing so, force them to come up with other contortions for why they think they ought to be able to use it (or for why they think they’re being oppressed). Is Gibson’s problem that he used the N-word or that he implied that black people are more likely to rape provocatively dressed women? Change the “N-word” to “African Americans” and what Gibson says doesn’t become any less racist. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/150 "2010-07-11T03:39:12Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Im thinking he did not become the asshole he is today, but rather he was always the asshole he is today, we just weren’t aware. I’m reminded of Dennis Miller’s comments (on _SNL_’s ‘Weekend Update’) when right-wing talk show host Morton Downey Jr. was revealed to have pulled a publicity stunt where he claimed he was attacked (he shaved his own head and spray-painted a swastika on it): \*"Am I the only one who thinks Morton Downey has \*\*always \*_had a swastika painted on his head?"_ ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/151 "2010-07-11T04:31:17Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I’m black. > [@descamisado](#): > > [Clean too](http://www.nouilles.info/sdpix/25267.html). This has completely shattered my mental image of **MeanOldLady**! Whenever I read a post of hers I imagined a little old white lady reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/152 "2010-07-11T04:35:19Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I just listened to the tape. The South Park episode wasn’t really parody after all. > > Regardless of how much of an ass he is in he is in his own head he really does not seem to have any sense at all when it comes to using his “out loud” voice. > If he suspects that his Russian baby mama is a borderline whore/grifter the reasonable thing to do is take cover and go legal. If he suspects she’s a whore on the make, that it would not occur to him that the she would be taping their rancorous calls as leverage speaks to an ego so monsterous and blinkered it staggers the imagination. After the sugar tits episode you’d think he would know better. > > Re the game plan it’s hard to know what her strategy is in releasing the recordings. Now that she’s shot her bolt, her leverage is gone on that issue. They are not married, so short of child support what’s her payday other than some tabloid money? Why do you assume she has to have a “strategy” for anything? He was threatening her life. He had physically abused her. She wanted him to stop. She doesn’t need any other “strategy.” The language in this thread calling her a “whore” and a “grifter” and whatnot is really imappropriate. What does it even mean? Did she force Mel Gibson to stick his dick in her? Is he not responsible for his own actions. In what way is she “grifting” him? How has she conned or deceived him? How are you defining “whore?” Any woman who has sex with a movie star and doesn’t want to accept being punched in the face and threatened with death as part of the deal is a “whore?” What do you mean by using that word? She doesn’t deserve anything she got from Mel Gibson and she doesn’t deserve these completely groundless insinuations and slurs on her character. You don’t hit women, period, and you especially don’t hit the mother of your child and knock out two of her teeth while she’s holding your baby. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/153 "2010-07-11T07:35:28Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > This has completely shattered my mental image of **MeanOldLady**! Whenever I read a post of hers I imagined a little old white lady reading it. Yes. She owes me a new keyboard, as my head just exploded all over it. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/154 "2010-07-11T13:50:40Z")
Y’all can continue imagining me being a little old white lady if it helps keep your heads in tact. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/155 "2010-07-11T13:59:13Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Y’all And now you’re a little old white lady from the south! ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/156 "2010-07-11T14:32:01Z")
You know, not to hijack (this is what someone says right before a hijack), but I don’t like this business about the plural of “you” being “you.” I want a separate word for pluralization. None of this figuring it out through context crap. This is why I, a non-Southerner (and an English major, no less), will continue saying “y’all” until I die. Gnash your teeth, yankees, but it is a functional word, and I love it. So in conclusion, Mel Gibson is crazy. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/157 "2010-07-11T14:33:55Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > You know, not to hijack (this is what someone says right before a hijack), but I don’t like this business about the plural of “you” being “you.” I want a separate word for pluralization. None of this figuring it out through context crap. This is why I, a non-Southerner (and an English major, no less), will continue saying “y’all” until I die. Gnash your teeth, yankees, but it is a functional word, and I love it. Relax. It was just a black joke. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/158 "2010-07-11T14:37:33Z")
I just like going on about why “y’all” is such a great word, and will at any given opportunity. Now off to Radar to check for more crazy updates! ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/159 "2010-07-11T15:55:15Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I just like going on about why “y’all” is such a great word, and will at any given opportunity. Now off to Radar to check for more crazy updates! As a yankee, I love y’all, I think it works perfectly. And, of course, in black slang, it is not considered Southern at all, it’s just normal to say. (actually, pronounced more like ‘yaw’). I am tripping off of that picture, too. Wow. Lovely. Miller looks cool as hell! You notice that? It’s the next pic after MOL’s. He has on a costume but that is not the cool part. He just looks…_cool._ ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246/160 "2010-07-11T16:05:18Z")
I am hoping more than ever now for a tell-all book about him and putting Gibson on my DP list for 2011. There was an unauthorized book on Gibson many years ago that I gleened, and his alcholic and philandering ways were mentioned. He could be the new Michael Jackson of WTFness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-mel-gibson/545246.md?page=9)