Mad Max Indeed

Elsewhere on the Holier Than Thou front, it turns out that Mel Gibson, that darling of the religious right and Hollywood's favorite anti-Semite, may have finally done his dash.

As is now well known, Gibson's views of Jewry are, well, unorthodox. You didn't have to see his homoerotic "The Passion of the Christ" to know that this apple didn't fall far from the tree. Mel's father, Hutton Gibson is the leader of a traditionalist Catholic movement and Holocaust denier.

As is also well known, the wanker was drunk when his Lexus was pulled over by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy over the weekend. Gibson was no stranger to police, as they say, and previously had been twice stopped but let go. I'm sure they would have done the same for you and I.

What remains in dispute is what he said when he tussled with the deputy.

The sheriff's department ain't saying, but a Web site called TMZ.com has published portions of the arrest report -- later confirmed by The Los Angeles Times -- that was not made public in which the multi-millionaire Oscar winner is described as being abusive, declared that he owned Malibu, questioned whether the arresting officer was a Jew and shouted anti-Jewish slurs, including "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" as he tried to flee.

Now there is a police investigation of the police investigation, as well as the obligatory public apology from Gibson, cluck-clucking from his movie studio, a hastily arranged trip to a rehab facility and the inevitable second apology and request to meet with "leaders in the Jewish community" since his initial mea culpa was so widly disbelieved.

Gibson's seeming piety as a traditionalist Catholic (he runs a church in Malibu, of all places) has always struck me as a hypocritical front. But is hate speech -- in this instance saying out loud what too many people believe but keep to themselves -- on top of a hateful movie a reason to blackball him?

Even Gibson himself thinks so.

"Oh, my career is f*cked," he is said to have tearfully told the cops.

Let's hope so.