Mel Gibson

Is there anyone of us who, if our worst moments were secretly caught on tape (and then edited to make them especially unappealling), would come across much better than Mel Gibson did?

I know; Gibson salted his rants with racial epithets. And we know that his critics would never do that -- they're as polite in private, when think they're off the record, as they are in public when they're accepting an Academy Award. Promise!

I wouldn't want to be spoken to the way Gibson allegedly spoke to his ex. But I am also equally sure about what's going on here: a gold-digger on par with Paul McCartney's ex, Heather Mills, is trying to extract her tens of millions from Gibson.

Here's my Sun column on the subject. P.S. If you haven't seen Gibson's movie Apocalypto, you are missing something incredible. I've seen it three times and would see it again.

Eavesdropping on someone else’s domestic arguments is in bad taste. But when purported recordings of actor Mel Gibson shouting at his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, hit the Internet last week, millions of Gibson’s fans couldn’t resist listening in as the Oscar winner who played Mad Max, Hamlet and William Wallace let loose his profanity-laced tirades.

Of course such anger is unappealing; of course his sexist and racist flourishes are to be denounced; and of course his dark hints of actually hurting his ex — such as burning down the house — are appalling, though they seem to have been for dramatic effect.

One can only imagine how Quentin Tarantino, whose fevered mind gave us such profane shocks as Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, argues when he’s really mad. And we don’t need much imagining to picture Al Pacino — who played ruthless roles in Scarface and the Godfather — blowing his stack.

Grigorieva probably had to put up with plenty of such rants during the course of her brief relationship with Gibson. And just as surely, before she even shacked up with the billionaire, she knew like the rest of us did that Gibson had a penchant for profanity with a mean edge.

Grigorieva’s lawyers claim the conversations she meticulously recorded were not leaked to the media by her. But all of this is in the middle of a legal battle over the custody of the couple’s young child‚ and the millions of dollars of payments that Grigorieva hopes to extract from Gibson. A $20-million figure has been floated, which would be more per-minute than Paul McCartney paid to Heather Mills for their relationship.

But then it’s a lot harder to imagine Sir Paul using the C-word to describe his ex.

But besides the drama, there are two serious questions. Is Gibson a racist, as his use of racial epithets would suggest? And does he restrict his offences to the verbal, or is he physically abusive, too?

One definition of being a racist is saying racist things, and Gibson has certainly done that. But other than shocking punctuation marks for his arguments, is he serious?

Gibson has no aversion to working with minority actors such as Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series and Tina Turner in Mad Max. In 2006, he directed Apocalypto, a movie that featured only aboriginal actors, who spoke in an ancient Mayan dialect. The effort won Gibson a raft of prizes, including from Latino and aboriginal advocacy groups, not to mention three Oscar nominations.

Gibson might say racist things to hurt someone when he’s mad, and that’s not OK. But the bulk of his life’s work speaks of cross-cultural understanding.

But what about the menacing aspects of his calls? Is he violent? If so, the man should be charged with the serious crime of spousal assault.

But Grigorieva never made such a complaint to police or the public until the custody hearing.

Gibson’s reputation is tarnished by these tapes, as it should be. But the establishment denunciation of him seems stronger than for other celebrities in a similar position.

Alec Baldwin left abusive phone messages directed toward his daughter; he’s the toast of the Emmys. Christian Bale was recorded freaking out on tape; he’s never been hotter in Hollywood. Again, that’s just about shouting and swearing. What about real violence?

Director Roman Polanski drugged and raped a teenager, and fled the U.S. to avoid trial; Hollywood has made him a saint, and given him no end of prizes and tributes. Charlie Sheen shot girlfriend Kelly Preston in the arm, threatened wife Denise Richards with assault and was charged with assaulting third wife Brooke Mueller.

But Baldwin, Polanski and Sheen are perfect liberals; Gibson is a Christian conservative. So Sheen was signed to do two more seasons of Two and a Half Men at nearly $2 million per episode. Gibson’s agency dropped him.

Gibson doesn’t need expensive rehab or anger management to get his career back. He just needs a $10 membership in Obama’s re-election campaign.