Mel's Tequila Sunrise - New York Times
The New York Times

August 2, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Mel's Tequila Sunrise
By
MAUREEN DOWD

My mom always warned me to stay away from tequila.

She would have given the same advice to Mel. She loved Mel, and always
thought he would have been perfect for the role of Michael Collins, the
romantic
fighter for Irish independence who came to a bloody end in a roadside ambush
in 1922.

Michael Collins came a cropper in County Cork, not County Quirk, as Mel
Gibson did, careering along the same Pacific Coast winding yellow brick road
where
Robert Downey Jr. and Nick Nolte were snagged by the Malibu police in other
momentous events in American history.

Mr. Gibson appears to believe that the Jews control everything. It is an
ancient anti-Semitic insult. But now that he has gotten into trouble for his
bigoted
views, he has thrown himself at the mercy of the object of his bigotry.

He said he wants to "meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I
can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for
healing."

He added: "I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words
came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community,
whom
I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery."

It's not the first time he's gotten in trouble for intolerance. When
"Braveheart" came out in 1995, Mr. Gibson ranted and raved when Frank Bruni,
then the
movie critic for The Detroit Free Press, asked him about some reportedly
homophobic remarks he had made three years earlier to a Spanish-language
magazine.
The magazine quoted him as saying that he became an actor "despite" the fear
that it might lead people to assume he was gay. Ecce homo! He told Frank
that
the arbiters of political of correctness were "tantamount to Nazis."

Now that the volatile Mr. Gibson has pleaded for guidance from leaders of
the American Jewish community, I decided to consult the only one I know. I
asked
Leon Wieseltier, the author of "Kaddish " and the literary editor of The New
Republic, how he would help Mel heal.

"He has been a very bad goy,'' Leon said.

"It is really rich to behold Gibson asking Jews to behave like Christians.
Has he forgotten how bellicose and wrathful and unforgiving we are? Why
would
a people who start all the wars make a peace? Perhaps he's feeling a little
like Jesus, hoping that the Jews don't do their worst and preparing himself
for more evidence of their disappointing behavior.

"I have always wondered why people who believe that we control the world do
not have more respect for us. Take that cop who arrested Gibson. Do you
think
it was a coincidence that he was a Jew? We have been following Gibson's
every move since he released that movie. The other night, when our uniformed
brother
spotted him bobbing and weaving in his star car, we saw an opportunity and
we took it. Don't blame us. It's what Yahweh would do.

"When Officer Mee busted him, we all busted him.

"Moreover, it is the elders' considered view that whereas alcoholism may
require a process of recovery, anti-Semitism is a more intractable and less
chic
failing. This was not a moment of insanity, even if Gibson is insane. His
hatred of Jews was plain in his movie and in his twisted defense of it,
which
was made when he was sober under the influence of his primitive world view.
Perhaps he thinks that all he needs to do is spend a few months in AA -
Anti-Semites
Anonymous - and find some celebrity sponsor and run for absolution to Larry
Zeiger, I mean Larry King, where he can say with perfect sincerity that the
Holocaust was a terrible thing and gut yontif.

"But the elders have instructed Larry to be strict with the uncircumcised
offender. He is to appear only opposite 'American Idol' and in the company
of
David Gest.

"We understand that Gibson cannot do it alone. But why do we have to do it
with him? We would find it hard to be in a room with him unless, of course,
he
wants to count some money with us. Why doesn't he turn to the vast number of
his Christian brothers and sisters who show no trace of anything resembling
his disgusting prejudice?

"Mad Max is making Max mad, and Murray, and Irving, and Mort, and Marty, and
Abe. But we're not completely heartless. If he wants to do Shylock at dinner
theater, fine. If he agrees to fill his swimming pool with Kabbalah water,
fine."

Then Leon was just too aggravated to speak. He mumbled something in Aramaic
and hung up.

Postsed by Miriam V.