Mel-icious Intent

Something about the Mel Gibson incident doesn't sit right with me. It's not the hateful, bigoted comments, much as I despise them. It's the SORT of hateful, bigoted comments he made, and their timing. In the news accounts, it's generally reported that when he failed his sobriety test and it was clear he would be arrested, he first bemoaned how his celebrity meant this incident would be publicized. He said "my life is fucked," then tried to escape. It was when he was handcuffed and placed in the sheriff's car that the tirade against Jews began.

This is where it gets odd for me. What motivated the anti-Semitic comments? I can understand his rant about "owning Malibu" and "you're going to regret you ever did this to me." But why rail against Jews? He doesn't even ask the arresting officer if he's a Jew until after he's made the comment about Jews being responsible for all the wars in the world. If he felt he was being persecuted by a Jewish officer, wouldn't that have been the first question? So why? A blood alcohol level of .12 is impaired, to be sure, and freed of a few inhibitions, but not so scuttered one loses total control over what one is saying.

So, in the tradition of "there's no such thing as bad publicity," is it possible that Mel planned this incident? That he went to his car with an open bottle of tequila and roared up and down PCH at double the limit until he was pulled over, then ranted about how awful it would be if this was publicized (please -- whatever you do, don't throw me in that briar patch!)? After Mel's last dust-up over anti-Semitism his movie pulled in over $600 million worldwide, so why not stick with a tried and true formula? Mel's upcoming film, "Apocalypto" doesn't have any anti-Semitic content (the trailer makes it seem that the movie is an allegory about moral degeneracy and its effect on powerful nations), so he stokes the publicity fire with a few comments of his own, and adds a touch of sexism ("what are you looking at, sugar-tits?) for good measure.

On one level, it seems insane. But we're talking about a world where attention brings money. Lots of it. And lots of money can make people do lots of strange things.