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Mel’s meltdown
When a movie star gets drunk and spews anti-Semitic remarks, it’s Really Big News, isn’t it? But will the story stick? Will charm overcome ugliness? And what does this have to do with TV?
In the case of Mel Gibson, the fall-out trickles down from the big screen to the small.
ABC officially canceled Gibson’s long-planned miniseries about the Holocaust. A network spokesman made it sound like ABC’s decision was based on the actor-director’s tardiness in turning in a script that had been discussed two years ago. But that isn’t the reason.
Whoever agreed to let Gibson — whose father has stated publicly that he doubts the Holocaust ever happened and who himself has long been suspected of harboring anti-Semitic sentiments — go near a Holocaust project must have been drunk, too.
If you’ve been underwater at Hippy Hollow for the past few days, you might not know that Gibson was arrested near Malibu in the wee hours of the morning Friday. A breath test dubbed him legally drunk, and the arresting officer has confirmed that Gibson spewed more than a few four-letter words attached to an anti-Semitic rant.
Because this happened over the weekend, the reactions dribbled in rather slowly, but ABC’s Barbara Walters pretty much summed up common sentiment on Monday’s edition of “The View” when she said she has no interest in seeing any more Gibson movies. The audience cheered loudly.
Gibson, as ill-behaving actors are wont to do, has tucked himself away in a rehab facility somewhere to deal with what he has described as a “lifelong” battle with alcoholism and other addictions. It’s unclear how he plans to deal with his addiction to anti-Semitism, which could be a much bigger problem than booze.
Disney execs are stewing right now over how to promote Gibson’s next film, “Apocalypto,” which he directed and is scheduled for Dec. 8 release.
Here’s what’s likely to happen: Adorable Mel will come out of rehab all charming and contrite. He’ll go on “The Tonight Show” and joke about his drunk-driving escapade. He’ll sit down for a fuzzy interview — again — with Diane Sawyer and deny he has any ill feelings toward anyone anywhere.
Is redemption possible? We’ll know Dec. 8, when a bunch of unknown actors take to the screen speaking Mayan.
MTV is 25 today …
Do you care? Those of us who were around when the music video channel launched might not care, but younger viewers obviously do.
MTV remains the most-watched commercial cable channel among viewers 12 to 36. They tune in for cartoons, reality shows, star searches and other nonmusic programming. Appointment viewing like “Laguna Beach” is way more popular than some rapper’s new video release.
Music videos currently run in the graveyard 3 to 8 a.m. shift. Anyone who still craves music videos has to be pretty determined to find them.
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