Mel's Madness

With the latest Mel Gibson implosion currently fueling office cooler commentary, it seemed an appropriate time to reflect on public displays of bad behavior. Or private ones, for that matter. Mel is apparently guilty of both, having made a series of offensive remarks during his drunk driving arrest four years ago and now, caught on audio tape by his girlfriend, dishing out a litany of abuse. The first incident could be chalked up to drunken nonsense, or so his publicist might say. But it had to be obvious to even Mel's fans that calling a female police officer "sugar tits" and tirades against Jews revealed his sexist, anti-Semitic side. There were rumors of this before, during promotion for his film "The Passion of the Christ," which reportedly depicted Jews in a stereotypical and historically inaccurate fashion. Not surprising, since the star's father is a Holocaust denier.

Mel's wife of 28 years and seven children, Robyn, divorced him in April of last year. That left him with a girlfriend and a "love child." Listening to the the tape of Oksana Grigorieva getting lambasted by Gibson is gut-wrenching. One thinks of all the victims of partner abuse and domestic violence who don't have a public forum to air their grievances. Gibson's verbal evisceration of Oksana goes so far beyond the pale it sounds like a B-grade horror film. Mel comes across like a killer in a slasher reel, complete with heavy breathing, endless threats and unbridled profanity. It's also clear he's a raving bigot. The agency that used to represent him has cut him loose. It's hard to imagine anyone willing to touch him after this exposure. He's a candidate for the Hollywood loony bin, far from the golden boy clutching Oscars for "Braveheart."

Similarly, parents reacted with disdain to the audio clip of Alec Baldwin's argument with his then-eleven-year-old daughter. Baldwin is not even in the ballpark with Mel on this one. He's just a tired, irritated father having a bad day, railing against his child for her thoughtless approach to their pre-arranged phone calls. He calls her mother, his ex-wife Kim Basinger, "an ass" which is tame compared to the gamut of expletives Mel rains down on his mistress.

If we are being honest with ourselves, if someone taped us at our worst we'd have a lot to account for. There is no defense for the loathsome Mad Mel, but the contemptible diatribe touched on some visceral elements found in many relationships. At one point Mel says, "You make my life so f---ing difficult." At another he tells her she has no soul, that they share "no spiritual common ground." I can relate to that one. I'm just not threatening to kill my husband over it. It was scary for my spouse to hear it too, for he also recognized the desperation in Gibson's screeching voice. It's an object lesson in the primal side of human behavior, a glimpse of the moral abyss, the car wreck you can't help rubbernecking. And sadly, it's another piece of entertainment on our info-driven radar screens.