Mel Gibson is sorry

Mel Gibson has issued a second apology for his anti-Semitic remarks made after being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol early Friday morning in Malibu. Gibson said:

“There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said … I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words … please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith … I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.”

So far, only the Anti Defamation League has accepted Gibsons apology. National director Abraham Foxman said:

“This is the apology we had sought and requested. We are glad that Mel Gibson has finally owned up to the fact that he made anti-Semitic remarks, and his apology sounds sincere. We welcome his efforts to repair the damage he has caused, to reach out to the Jewish community, and to seek help.”

Hollywood is pretty weird. Mel Gibson got really really drunk and said he didn’t like Jews. And everyone agrees that’s bad, but when Woody Allen was 52, he was taking naked pictures of and having sex with his 17 year old stepdaughter*. And he was accused of molesting his 8 year old stepdaughter. Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year old when he was 43, then received a standing ovation at the Academy Awards when he won Best Director for “the Pianist”. Ron Howard has a private island where he releases homeless people and hunts them, and Tom Hanks is a cannibal. And yet, where’s the outrage.

Source = IMDb and BBC.

(*okay, not technically his “stepdaughter”, but the adopted daughter of the woman he lived with. Close enough. What are you, a lawyer now.)