# Mel Gibson dials it up to 11 with new telephone recording. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 13, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490 "2010-07-13T03:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![pinkyvee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pinkyvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkyvee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/401 "2010-07-17T15:19:44Z")
My husband goes to 12 step meetings. He would occasionally see Mel. Yesterday, my husband commented that he has not seen THE MEL in any meeting for well over a year. That explains a lot. The worst combo for an alcoholic is when resentment builds their entitlement. A VERY dangerous combo. Yeah, Mel is “in pain” … The pain of resentment + entitlement = rageaholism. As is, Mel is very dangerous. Not only to his mistress, and their daughter, but he is also a great threat to himself. I hope he gets arrested. That is the best outcome for everyone, in my mind. ---
**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 17, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/402 "2010-07-17T16:51:16Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > \ Laugh it up, Princess. You are the QUEEN of nonsense on this board. Now, why don’t you go for a swim or something? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/403 "2010-07-17T17:03:17Z")
> [@pinkyvee](#): > > My husband goes to 12 step meetings. > He would occasionally see Mel. > Yesterday, my husband commented that he has not seen THE MEL in any meeting for well over a year. > That explains a lot. One thing it explains is why celebrities don’t go to allegedly anonymous 12 step meetings.:rolleyes: ---
**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 17, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/404 "2010-07-17T17:09:03Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > OK, genius. Why don’t you tell us all what you are talking about? The favorite word of people that type a lot without actually saying anything is strawman. I can’t believe it took you that long to pull it out, but now that you have, please, explain what you know. > > Tell us \*\*\*all \*\*\*what you know. There is nothing in this post that implies anything. All you have said is that I know nothing about AV, but you have not indicated ANYTHING that shows that you do. > > Here is what you have ASSERTED, throughout your posts (in a nutshell, of course… an appropriate container). “I (Sleeps With Butterflies) know about DV. YOU (SFP and anyone like you) know nothing.” > > That’s not a lot to go on. So wow us. Your “proof” is nothing more than telling anyone that doesn’t agree with you that they are wrong. > > So go get your books, or search the web, pull out some bullet points, and lets see what you come up with. > > I’m not expecting you to put down ideas that are in your head. I expect you to “cheat” by using reference materials. So feel free. You haven’t put one fact in this entire thread. You really are reaching for anything now, aren’t you? YOU are the one who claimed to know what I’ve said although you got nothing right. You are the one who claimed that I wanted Mel institutionalized. You are the one who has said that I refuse to change my mind about how I feel about this situation yet even though my words are right here in this post you have no examples for me. You said I wouldn’t even CONSIDER the idea that she was a gold-digger when I said in post #208 that of course it was possible that she is. You are ranting and getting nothing right. Don’t you find that at least a little bit embarrassing? I’m not going to get reference materials for you. I’m not going to give you bullet points. I already told you that I’m not doing your work for you and you’ve already said you’re not going to believe anyone in this thread so why on earth would I? Learn for yourself. I know you think you’re being very clever by pretending that I’ve painted myself as an expert in DV. The thing is, I never said that. I simply said that YOU are woefully ignorant. Truly, in comparison to you, some people in this thread are professor level instructors. The questions you ask, the flippant ideas you shovel, and the laughable conclusions you draw show that you know about as much a teenager after his very first afterschool special. Your claim of what I’ve asserted (that I know about DV and you anyone like you -whatever that means- don’t) simply proves that once again you fail to read this thread and pull any information. Quit being a child playing with exaggerated absolutes and give real information or remain as ignorant as you appear to be. So once again, do your own research. Get the answers to your own questions since you’ve already said you believe no one here. If you don’t want to, then don’t. But don’t expect anyone to take you seriously when you are skeptical why a victim might stay with their abuser for more than a few months. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/405 "2010-07-17T17:13:37Z")
I got about three minutes into the first tape when my flesh was crawling so badly I had to stop. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/406 "2010-07-17T17:18:54Z")
> [@pinkyvee](#): > > My husband goes to 12 step meetings. > He would occasionally see Mel. > Yesterday, my husband commented that he has not seen THE MEL in any meeting for well over a year. > That explains a lot. It explains that you are an ashole. Care to give us your real name ? Anonymity is a fundamental request of members in 12 step programs and compliance is expected for everyone who attends. THAT MEANS EVERYONE INCLUDING SPOUSES INFORMED IN CONFIDENCE ! And you failed to point out that Mel may very well have decided to go to one or more of the many other 12 step meetings that is available to him in his area. In a little city of 25,000 people that I know, there were 8 AA groups. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Presidente](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@El\_Presidente](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Presidente)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/407 "2010-07-17T17:19:08Z")
I’ve watched one of Mel Gibson’s recent interviews: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MxZRfn2Rgqg/maxresdefault.jpg "Mel Gibson calls Dean Richards an A\*\*hole Full Uncut WGN-TV") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxZRfn2Rgqg) . . and after listening to these tapes, I have theorized that Mel Gibson has a cocaine problem. ---
**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 17, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/408 "2010-07-17T17:27:01Z")
It wasn’t a secret that Mel Gibson was in 12 Step. Jesus, lighten up. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/409 "2010-07-17T17:45:06Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > But you are convinced of your intellectual superiority on this subject. Others in this thread have declared her a gold-digger (and worse). You, however, refuse to believe that this is the case. > > What if it turns out that Oksana is not only a gold digger, but she stayed with Mel and recorded all of his conversations with him to try to blackmail him. Is your answer like Dio’s, who said something along the lines of “so what? He deserved it!”. or would you think that what she did was not only wrong, but could have also put her child at unnecessary risk? Or is that impossible; only you, and others enlightened on the topic of DV would truly understand what she was doing. > > … > > I can question all day long why a woman would stay in an abusive relationship. If you are telling me that a victim of DV is drawn to her abuser like a magnet, and she’s powerless to escape tells me that you believe it could happen to anyone. Including someone like you, that already knows the warning signs and pitfalls of a DV relationship. > > I don’t happen to subscribe to the theory that the victim is powerless. You do. And because of that difference, you believe you are completely right, and I am ignorant to the subject of DV. That’s about as close-minded as someone can get. Et a whole bunch of other nonsense cetera. This is 100% bullshit and you ought to take a little bit of responsibility for your poisonous perspective. Let’s get right to it: if she’s a gold-digger, then… what? What the fuck if, motherfucker? What do you have to say? You seem to like to get upset about other people’s claims to have some actual experience with the kind of issues you’re having fever dreams about, so here’s another: I sometimes work with domestic violence victims. Specifically, I’m the one who takes their stories and compiles them into legal documents asking a court for a protection order. I’ve seen this shit before. I’ve seen the patterns, I’ve heard the excuses, I know what the strategies are for marginalizing victims and making it their fault and deflecting attention to some less-than-tertiary issue like “well what was she thinking about when she held onto the tapes after he whacked the shit out of her and treated her like an animal?” or “why didn’t she just pack up and leave right then if he was so bad?”. So what are you trying to say? What’s your point? You’re going off about research and proof… of what? You’re too much of a coward to even state your position; you hide behind intellectual curiosity and “it’s not all so simple” and ask a bunch of ridiculous rhetorical questions so you don’t have make whatever point you’re trying to dance around. What’s your fucking point? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/410 "2010-07-17T18:46:26Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It wasn’t a secret that Mel Gibson was in 12 Step. Jesus, lighten up. It was a secret that Mel stopped participating in a 12 step program as alleged by **pinkyvee**. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/411 "2010-07-17T22:11:18Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > It explains that you are an ashole. > > Care to give us your real name ? > > Anonymity is a fundamental request of members in 12 step programs and compliance is expected for everyone who attends. THAT MEANS EVERYONE INCLUDING SPOUSES INFORMED IN CONFIDENCE ! > > And you failed to point out that Mel may very well have decided to go to one or more of the many other 12 step meetings that is available to him in his area. In a little city of 25,000 people that I know, there were 8 AA groups. Perhaps one where people don’t blab so much. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/412 "2010-07-17T22:20:22Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > It was a secret that Mel stopped participating in a 12 step program as alleged by **pinkyvee**. Oh, I don’t think it’s THAT secret! _L_ ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/413 "2010-07-17T23:06:57Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > More empty drivel removed Your argumentative “style” is at the level of a child, or in your case, Pee Wee Herman. Saying “I know you are, but what am I?” doesn’t really answer any questions, but it LOOKS like you are trying to engage in a debate. You are not. I re-read every post of yours on page 8 of this thread again, and you supplied absolutely NOTHING to the topic. You wrote NOTHING that indicated your position. But you did a lot of typing. At least \*\*Dio \*\*attempts to explain himself and his POV. I may not agree with him all the time, but he makes an effort, and I respect that. I’m not going to waste my time with you any longer, because you appear to not be interested (or capable) of discussing this topic. I am sure you will have a few thoughts as to why I’ve grown weary of you. I am positive you will not get it. You are either very young or very immature (or both). The only embarrassment I will feel is if I continue to engage you in any dialogue on this topic. I’m not reaching for anything. Unlike you, or many other people on this board, I do not seek the approval of total strangers on a message board to feel vindicated. When (and if) you can muster an actual question for me that is relevant to the discussion, let me know. I won’t be holding my breath. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/414 "2010-07-17T23:20:04Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > And what, pray tell, did I say that indicates that in your opinion I have no idea what I’m talking about? After all, you’ve been to a couple of classes. Enlighten us. But use my posts, please. Hell, I’ll use this very post. For starters: > [@](#): > > Reading **Mighty\_Girl** ’s post is a tragic story, but it does not convince me that staying is better than packing your kids up and leaving. If the guy was capable of killing her after she left, he was capable of killing her at any time. or > [@](#): > > What I did say is that asking when these tapes were made vs. when they were released is a legitimate question. If she continued a relationship with this nutjob for months after the recorded tirade at the beginning of this thread, I think an obvious question is why she didn’t leave him then and there. > [@](#): > > We aren’t talking about some woman with no job, 4 children, and no where to go. If you are lumping her in with the average person you’ve dealt with over the last 13 years, I question your ability to understand the dynamics of an individual case. > [@](#): > > She clearly has money and she’s paying high priced attorneys to handle this. She clearly could afford to go someplace else, but has chosen to live at Mel’s house. That decision is enough for me to question her ability to protect her child from a direct threat of harm. And that’s what’s important here. The child. Staying in a house owned by the alleged batterer, who presumably has keys to the house is not the brightest choice to make, is it? All grade-A prime ignorance. It’s a shame you aren’t interested in remedying it. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/415 "2010-07-17T23:53:59Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > Et a whole bunch of other nonsense cetera. This is 100% bullshit and you ought to take a little bit of responsibility for your poisonous perspective. Wow. OK, I take responsibility for everything I’ve typed in this thread. Feel better now? > [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > Let’s get right to it: if she’s a gold-digger, then… what? What the fuck if, motherfucker? What do you have to say? Motherfucker? Wow again! I’m so intimidated. But, since you’ve actually asked a question, I’ll answer it for you. I will make the bold assumption that you did not read this whole thread, or if you did, you skimmed it without reading for comprehension. Not a surprise. You aren’t the first one to have done it. I don’t care if she is or was a gold digger. It’s not relevant to the treatment of one human being to another. Mel’s behavior is indefensible, inexcusable, and I think I’ve been consistent throughout this thread with my feelings on this subject. When this first came up (I believe with **Dio** ), I was merely stating that based on what we know so far, we don’t have the whole story. And what we as the public might believe _ **is irrelevant** _ in a court of law. This story can be interpreted by attorneys, judges, and jurors differently than we all seem to be interpreting it here. Saying that Mel may be convicted in the court of public opinion, but not in a court of law seems to have set everyone off into a “ **Stink Fish Pot** thinks she’s a gold-digger, and he supports Mel’s actions.” Not even close. > [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > You seem to like to get upset about other people’s claims to have some actual experience with the kind of issues you’re having fever dreams about, so here’s another: I sometimes work with domestic violence victims. Specifically, I’m the one who takes their stories and compiles them into legal documents asking a court for a protection order. I’ve seen this shit before. I’ve seen the patterns, I’ve heard the excuses, I know what the strategies are for marginalizing victims and making it their fault and deflecting attention to some less-than-tertiary issue like “well what was she thinking about when she held onto the tapes after he whacked the shit out of her and treated her like an animal?” or “why didn’t she just pack up and leave right then if he was so bad?”. Again, I am not upset at anyone in this thread or on this board. I simply do not care enough about you, **Dio** , **Sleeps With Butterflies** , or anyone else to the point that anger would well up inside me. Your speech is nice, but it doesn’t answer the real question, does it? i.e. why didn’t she leave? It has been mentioned in this thread on a number of occasions that she is far from destitute. According to the telephone call, Mel wasn’t even living with her at the time of the call. It was his house, and he had moved out. She wasn’t having the snot beat out of her every day. Even one day is one day too many, but my questions dealt with why she held onto the tapes, who leaked them to the press, and why didn’t she extricate herself from a bad situation. She isn’t even married to Mel, so she doesn’t have to live through a long, lengthy divorce process. Would it make you feel better if I shared a DV case with you? I don’t know if what you are saying is true or not. I don’t know if you work with DV cases or not. You can say it (as others have said in this thread) but none of us have no way of knowing if you are making it up or it’s the truth. That’s the whole point of what I said. No more, no less. How you roll that into me being upset, angry or whatever emotions I’m supposed to have on your claims of first hand knowledge of DV issues is just nonsense. But since my credibility is being questioned, I’ll share one of my stories with you. A friend of mine from high school was in a dysfunctional relationship with a girl I also went to high school with. He was the dysfunctional part of the relationship. Even after they split, he continued to stalk her, harass her, and basically made her life a living hell. The fact that they shared a child didn’t help the issue either. So, one night she goes out on a date. When she comes back, my friend blew her and her date both apart with a shotgun. Then he shot his own head off. > [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > So what are you trying to say? What’s your point? You’re going off about research and proof… of what? You’re too much of a coward to even state your position; you hide behind intellectual curiosity and “it’s not all so simple” and ask a bunch of ridiculous rhetorical questions so you don’t have make whatever point you’re trying to dance around. What’s your fucking point? What exactly do you think I’m a coward of? You are typing so hard to get this post finished, people within earshot of you are probably wondering why you are so mad at your keyboard. My initial point, as I’ve said in this post (and previous posts) is that even though things may look cut and dry to the public, the law is a different thing. Clearly it is. If it weren’t, Mel would be in jail right now for making the threats he made on those tapes. I’m curious as to why he hasn’t been arrested already if he admitted to hitting her in the face and breaking her teeth. Maybe you (or someone that knows the DV laws in California) could answer that. No need to name call. I can answer your questions without calling you a motherfucker. Perhaps you could try to dial down the anger to have a rational conversation about a very serious subject. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/416 "2010-07-18T00:01:47Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > Reading Mighty\_Girl’s post is a tragic story, but it does not convince me that staying is better than packing your kids up and leaving. If the guy was capable of killing her after she left, he was capable of killing her at any time.. If you are telling me that she had no choice but to stay, then say that. Everyone that seems to think I’m ignorant of the subject doesn’t tell us why that is. What I read from your statement is that leaving was not an option for her. Staying was not an option for her. So, what is left? If all of you “experts” know the warning signs, the patterns, and how this all plays out in every situation, then please share. If you don’t, pardon me for being a bit skeptical of your “wisdom”. ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/417 "2010-07-18T00:40:08Z")
Don’t Call Me Shirley, I, for one, am honestly interested in having my “ignorance” on this particular point alleviated. I completely understand the common dynamic of the battered woman (or man…henceforth, “the victim”) staying in an abusive relationship/situation and why the common arm-chair advising of “just LEAVE” is a bunch of ignorant crap. The very nature of this sort of abuse reinforces the co-dependency, helplessness, fear, isolation, loyalty, etc…that make “just leaving” difficult or impossible. The economics and logistics can do likewise. And then there is the fact that very often, leaving or trying to can be more dangerous than staying, as far as the abuser actually killing you. I get all that. I’ve witnessed this sort of abuse a few times. When I was about 8, I had a friend whose father was a physical abuser of her mother. I witnessed a few of the beatings and subsequent "reconcilliations. It was a shocking, embarassing (for both my friend and I and the mother), almost incomprehensible thing to me then. WHY didn’t she just leave? Even then I realized that 1. she was finincially/materially dependent upon the status quo, and 2.(oddly enough to me at the time) both “loved” and feared her abuser. When I was 11, my mom had a friend, our next door neighbor, who had left an abusive relationship. One night, my mom and I went over to hang out and the EX came driving by, banging on the door, drunk and crazy, demanding his “stuff” and verbally abusing and threatening her. We called the cops, she stuck a butcher knife in the door-jamb to keep him out, and we stayed until 3 am or so to make sure she was safe. I recall this all vividly, and not only because I started menstruating that night. When I was 17, my own mother was with an abuser. He never beat her but threatened to. Threatened to KILL her one night, and that was the night I left, walking out into deep snow and walking 5 miles into town to stay at the house of a friend. She left him and came to get me the next day. We got an apartment in town, but a few weeks later she took him back and made plans to move back in with him. She sat me down and said she realized I didn’t want to live with him and offered to pay for me to move out of state, to where my grandmother lived. I went. She left him again soon after, for good, and a few yrs later, he ended up in prison after beating a man into a coma with a shovel. My mother is NOT stupid nor did/does she have a pattern of abusive relationships. BUT… Her mother, my grandmother, (the strongest person I have ever known) divorced an abusive, alcoholic husband and raised 5 kids on her own. She once told me that a few yrs before they divorced, he (a 6’3 man) beat her (a 5’2 woman) again and she told him, “If you EVER hit me again, you’d better kill me or I WILL kill you!” According to her he never touched her again. So no doubt my mother, even as the youngest and only 3 or so when they split, was affected by what she probably witnessed. Also a few other such situations with friends I’ve known over the years. At any rate, I submit that I have quite a bit of experience with this issue, and am hardly “ignorant” regarding the factors involved. Like a few others here, I honestly question WHY this woman STAYED, in HIS house yet, for so long. I think it’s a perfectly fair question. IF he was so horribly abusive and she was SO concerned for her safety and that of her child, did she not relocate and pursue the legal measures she is now from elsewhere? And, given the timing of the tapes and her allegations, did she stay IN the relationship so long after his abuse, according to her, became apparent? As I posted earlier, she does NOT fit the usual pattern of the “victim.” I suppose it’s possible. Maybe she herself had a history of abuse, witnessed or personal, that made her esp. vulnerable to falling into that role. Otherwise, WHY would a self-sufficient, mature woman remain in such a situation? I and every other woman I know would be gone at the first sign of such crap! I am honestly asking for your insight. I just don’t think it fair to dismiss such speculations/questions with a simple “you are ignorant”. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/418 "2010-07-18T00:46:25Z")
> **[Troubled Mel 'leaving the States' after selling his New York mansion at cut...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1295658/Mel-Gibson-leaves-States-selling-mansion-cut-price.html)** > > The disgraced Lethal Weapon star, who faces allegations of violence from his Russian former girlfriend, sold the mock Tudor property, known as Old Mill Farm, for £16 million – £10 million less than the asking price. He’s off to his native Australia. ---
**Author:** ![pinkyvee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pinkyvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkyvee)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/419 "2010-07-18T01:16:55Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > One thing it explains is why celebrities don’t go to allegedly anonymous 12 step meetings.:rolleyes: Sampiro, you’re correct. This was a mis-step on my part. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490/420 "2010-07-18T01:21:53Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > [Mel Gibson leaves the States after selling his mansion at cut price | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1295658/Mel-Gibson-leaves-States-selling-mansion-cut-price.html) > > He’s off to his native Australia. From that article: > [@](#): > > He has told friends that he will move back to his native Australia with his ex-wife Robyn, who still supports him. > > … > > ‘She has persuaded him that he needs to get away from Hollywood and find peace on his ranch and she will go with him along with some of the children.’ Does this mean (if the article is true) that he and his wife are reconciling? One of the shocks from the recordings (it not being a shock that Gibson is crazy and self-pitying and potentially violent) was his complaining about being broke. I can only imagine that in his case “broke” means “cash poor” (i.e. that his alleged nine figure wealth is tied up in investments that aren’t producing enough income to meet his expenditures so he’s having to liquidate some assets). OTOH, Mike Tyson and Ed McMahon are but two celebs who earned millions upon millions upon millions in their career and wound up in financial trouble. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mel-gibson-dials-it-up-to-11-with-new-telephone-recording/546490.md?page=22)