The Flack author, Peter Himler,
posted an entry today about Disney announcing its plans to move forward with distribution and marketing of Mel Gibson's movie, Apocalypto.
It was a small item in the Arts, Briefly section of yesterday's New York Times. But we certainly have not heard the last of it. The headline of the item culled from a Reuters report: "Disney Stands By Gibson Film"
.
What occurred to me is the joint venture doesn't appear as odd as some may think ... Mel Gibson is, as
Rob Schneider and
I have concluded, a rabid anti-semite with a drinking problem (not vice-versa).
The not-so-ironic thing about 'kid-friendly' Disney and 'Vatican I-friendly' Gibson is their apparent (or alleged, if you're a sissy) agreement on Jews, Judaism, Christ and Nazis.
It's impossible to say whether or not it is widely accepted that
Walt Disney was an anti-semite. It's also impossible to say his body is cryogenically frozen and that he
had bad gas (like Larry King). One thing is certain, Mel's father is a holocaust denier. Life father like son.
Mel Gibson has been getting his fair share, especially on
Huffington Post where everyone from
Alec Baldwin to
Dave Fratello has bashed him. Personally, I also agree with Dave Fratello (
bio) who said:
The fact is, if Mel tries the contrition route, he'll have a hard time convincing anyone. Real progress would be a donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Still, $10,000 or even $100,000 isn't going to be convincing.
Mel made $400 million with his blame-the-Jews "Passion of the Christ." The film was a surprise big hit in the Arab world, at least in countries that permitted it to be shown. Yasser Arafat praised it.
If the anti-semitic themes were worth just half the box office, Mel's contribution to the Wiesenthal Center should be $200 million.
Of course, if Mel is who he really is, and he's ready to admit it, Hezbollah could use the money right now, too.
I too hope, as Mr. Fratello playfully wishes, that Mel Gibson will turn into and OJ-like pariah. Praise Jesus.
Marty Kaplan, also on HuffingtonPost,
said of anti-semitism:
Like homophobia, racism, sexism and loving Ann Coulter, it's really a cultural disorder.
To be sure, a lifetime of saying that Jews are the cause of all the world's wars, or that George Soros is the Anti-Christ, can create synaptic pathways in the brain; what gets fired, gets wired. But just as cognitive therapy, meditation or splurging at Fred Segal can actually change neuronal pathways, surely there must be a comparable recovery program for Jew-hating.
I'm not sure that the answer is doing good works. Mel's been working on a Holocaust documentary for Disney for a couple of years now, and steeping himself in history's worst nightmare hasn't seemed to help him figure out the difference between villains and victims. It probably doesn't help that Hollywood's pet name for Disney is "Mauschwitz."
So. Mel Gibson and Walt Disney were both anti-semites, and I'm glad the two can, not only agree on something, but go to hell in a handbasket together with a movie that will get worse reviews than DaVinci Code, although the Vatican will try and get
positive reviews placed this time.
Now getting back to The Flack, I don't think, as Mr. Himler believes (as does
the people whom Fox News polled) that people will let Mel off the hook so easily. I disagree. One, back to the poll, if there is any clearer proof that Fox News viewers are almost exclusively conservative anti-semites with the education and intelligence of West Virginian hermits, please show it to me.
Here are some great bits from the poll:
6 percent of Americans say they "definitely" will not go to see Gibson’s movies in the future and another 10 percent say they "probably" won’t go, while eight out of 10 people say his arrest and negative comments about Jewish people will not make a difference to them.
Half of Americans say the worst part of the whole episode was that Gibson was driving while drunk, 16 percent say it was that he made anti-Semitic comments and 3 percent that he was belligerent with the police officers who stopped him. One in five people (22 percent) say all aspects of the incident were equally bad.
Overall, many more people view Gibson favorably (48 percent) than unfavorably (28 percent). For comparison, that puts him ahead of President Bush (39 percent favorable, 56 percent unfavorable) and behind British Prime Minister Tony Blair (56 percent favorable, 17 percent unfavorable).
This incident will negatively affect Gibson's career. I hope that it affects it to the point of irreperable schadenfreude.
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