Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hey Dopers,

Normally, I wouldn’t presume to start a new thread in a forum when I have less than 10 unique posts, but I feel I should share a piece of spam to get y’all’s opinion. I wrote a reply to this particular mail expressing my disbelief and got a reply asking me to prove that it was bull****. I have already done some reading on the net, not having a bio handy for the subject of the email, and told the person about my findings, needless to say, it wasn’t enough. So, I would appreciate some help in discrediting the following story:

Subject: WOW & THIS IS A TRUE STORY!!! –
To: Sunflower-65@webtv.net

True story
by Paul Harvey.

 Years ago a hardworking man took his family from New York State to Australia to take advantage of a work opportunity there. Part of this man's family was a handsome young son who had aspirations of joining the circus as a trapeze artist or an actor. This young fellow, biding his time, until a circus job or even a job as a stagehand came along, continued to work at the local shipyards which bordered on the worse section of town.

 Walking home from work one evening this young man was attacked by five thugs who wanted to rob him. Instead of just giving up his money, the young fellow resisted. However they bested him easily and proceeded to beat him to a pulp. They mashed his face with their boots, and kicked and beat his body brutally with clubs, leaving him for dead. When the police happened to find him lying in the road, they assumed he was dead and called for the Morgue Wagon. On the way to the morgue a policeman heard him gasp for air, and they immediately took him to the emergency unit at the hospital. When he was placed on a gurney a nurse remarked to her horror, that his young man no longer had a face. Each eye socket was smashed, his skull, legs, and arms fractured, his nose literally hanging from his face, all is teeth were gone, and his jaw was almost completely torn from his skull. Although his life was spared he spent over year in the hospital.

 When he finally left his body may have healed, but his face was disgusting to look at. He was no longer the handsome youth that everyone admired.

 When the young man started to look for work again he was turned down by everyone just on account of the way he looked. One potential employer suggested to him that he join the freak show at the circus as The Man Who Had No Face. And ... he did this for a while. Still he was rejected by everyone and no one wanted to be seen in his company. He had thoughts of suicide.

 This went on for five years. One day he passed a church and sought some solace there. Entering the church he encountered a priest who had seen him sobbing while kneeling in a pew. The priest took pity on him and took him to

the rectory where they talked at length. The priest was impressed with him to such a degree that he said that he would do everything possible for him that could be done to restore his dignity and life, if the young man would promise to be the best Catholic he could be, and trust in God’s mercy to free him from his torturous life. The young man went to Mass and communion every day, and after thanking God for saving his life, asked God to only give him peace of mind and the grace to be the best man he could ever be in His eyes.

 The priest, through his personal contacts was able to secure the services of the best plastic surgeon in Australia. They would be no cost to the young man, as the doctor was the priest's best friend. The doctor too was so impressed by the young man, whose outlook now on life, even though he had experienced the worse was filled with good humor and love.

The surgery was a miraculous success. All the best dental work was also done for him. The young man became everything he promised God he would be. He was also blessed with a wonderful, beautiful wife, and many children, and success in an industry which would have been the furthest thing from his mind as a career, if not for the goodness of God and the love of the people who cared for him. This he acknowledges publicly.

Scroll down to find out who

<Snip scroll space>

This young man is Mel Gibson.

2

From the IMDB http://www.imdb.com

quote:
“He took up acting only because his sister submitted an application behind his back. The night before an audition, he got into a fight, and his face was badly beaten, an accident that won him the role.”

I’d say Paul’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.

3

Most likely, it’s false. But, with his starring role in “The Man Without a Face” one can’t be too sure. LMAO But, I still say it’s false, with nothing to back it up. E! True Hollywood Story did a show on him, IIRC. Look in up on their website. (No URL, never been there.) If it’s not there, Mel obviously didn’t let this be known very publicly. Also, I wouldn’t be to worried about finding a reference to prove it’s false. Ask the person that sent the email to you if they have references to prove it’s true. If not, tell them to go $%&% a gerbil.

4

Wow, thanks for such prompt responses. :slight_smile: sniff I feel so loved.

This is a great start. Now, how about the feasibility of someone with the kind of damage done to their face as described above going thru plastic surgery and coming out looking like Mel does now, much less how he looked in his debut film?

5

Snopes says it’s pure UL at http://www.snopes.com/spoons/glurge/noface.htm .

I’d accept that as proof that this is bull.

6

Thanks for the URL, Kay.

If that isn’t enough evidence then my next post will be about how my fist was a casualty in the fight against ignorance after I put it through my monitor. :smiley:

7

That was all I needed to hear.

The IMDB also says he and Geoffrey Rush were “roommates” in college. I looked up Geoffrey Rush, and his bio says he “once lived with” Gibson when they were in college. So that is probably true, even if “once lived” means they were in the same dorm for a month, or both crashed in a house during the Australian equivalent of spring break. Still, one can see how easy it is to take one small occurrence and embellish it into a dramatic event.

8

As you can tell, this has been debunked. However, in a proper debate (not that an e-mail forward is a proper debate, admittedly) it is up to the person making an assertion to prove the point, not for you to disprove it.

The burden of proof is on them in any case…

9

10 unique posts"

Why?

There are lots of good questions around where the person only posted once or twice. Maybe they never came back, but more likely they got the answer they wanted and will come back only when they have a new question.

This place looks like an “expert board” at first. “Ask Cecil Anything.” So you do, on your first post and come back the next day hoping for Cecil’s answer.
And the next day and the next, and then realize he doesn’t ever answer, so you get Non-Smartest-Guy opinions only.
End of illusion. Then you see people have fun without getting valid answers, and join in.