Mel Gibson link to Aussie anti-Semitic group

August 6, 2006 4:03 AM

More Bad News For Mel In the 24-hour news cycle, tomorrow's bad news for Mel Gibson hits today: according to tomorrow's Sunday Herald Sun Mel Gibson once had ties to the Australian League of Rights, a right-wing group well-known in Australia for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Says the Herald Sun: "The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews." (Who, presumably, are responsible for all the wars in the world"
posted by Postroad (43 comments total)

What, no batshitinsane?
posted by NewBornHippy at 4:08 AM on August 6, 2006

sugar tits!
posted by pruner at 4:15 AM on August 6, 2006

What, no best of web?

Seriously, could ya do something more besides copying the first paragraph word for word, and almost link to link?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:16 AM on August 6, 2006

...and the first paragraph was wrong. It was the sixth in Australia when this came out. Hell, it's the sixth here now.

I tire of 'blogosphere exposes.' Especially of already-known-to-be-seedy celebrities. Moving along...
posted by koeselitz at 4:18 AM on August 6, 2006

"The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews."

Damn, they're on to us!
posted by Servo5678 at 4:32 AM on August 6, 2006

Hah, the huffpo people ranker next to the article is pretty funny.
posted by delmoi at 4:59 AM on August 6, 2006

You know I have to wonder if making fun of Gibson for saying "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" right now is counterproductive. I mean, right now Israel is bombing the fuck out of Lebanon, killing a lot of people, etc. That kind of thing will probably inflame some anti-Semitism.

The problem of course is that for mel's fan base after the Passion of the Christ, religious fanatics are all premillennial dispensationalists who are actually hoping for the end of the world and rooting for Israel, etc.
posted by delmoi at 5:05 AM on August 6, 2006

I just wish Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic tirade had been in Mayan.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 5:40 AM on August 6, 2006

Right, who is this Gibson chap anyways? I'm assuming that he is someone in power or has control of something siginificant.

Either way, here's what you're looking for, I think:

[outrage]

[indignation]

[torches and pitchgorks]

[forward story to everyone]

OK then. Time for some breakfast.
posted by sidereal at 5:54 AM on August 6, 2006

I claim copyright on the word "pitchgork"
posted by sidereal at 5:55 AM on August 6, 2006

"The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews."

Damn, they're on to us!

I'm fine with the world domination, it seems like you guys are doing an OK job so far, but could you please do something about Barbara Streisand?
posted by Meatbomb at 6:12 AM on August 6, 2006

Oh, thank God. The evil Mel Gibson has finally been exposed. And there was never a problem with anti-Semitism again.

It's a good thing the news has devoted so much time and attention to Mel because, as we all know, there is absolutely nothing more important happening in the world. And boy do they know how to prioritize too. Apparently, the little fact that he was drinking and driving is totally inconsequential.
posted by magodesky at 6:30 AM on August 6, 2006

Seriously, could ya do something more besides copying the first paragraph word for word, and almost link to link?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:16 AM EST on August 6 [+] [!]

I think it provides a very good synopsis of what you will find inside the link. It would be good form to put it into italics though to indicate that it is a direct quote.
posted by caddis at 7:08 AM on August 6, 2006

Wonder if he insulted arabs, portoricans or blacks we'll have all this media BULLSHIT
posted by zouhair at 8:37 AM on August 6, 2006

I did a little digging and found a rare photo from Mel's militant days.

I had no clue that the enemy gang in the desert were part of the jewish gasoline price fixing cartel. Now it all makes sense.
posted by isopraxis at 8:41 AM on August 6, 2006

Some think Gibson is a leftist.

I'm confused. Is hating a group a left or right thing today?
posted by infowar at 8:42 AM on August 6, 2006

Mel Gibson has been making mean-spirited, anti-gay, anti-Semetic comments for years. Hollywood protected him, because he was a cash cow. Then he decided to go off and start making his own batsh*t-crazy movies, and the studios stopped making money off of him (or, not the kind they really CARE about). Instead, Gibson made north of $100MM for himself. Processed instant comeuppance. Just add water.

There is NO story here, but if there's a point on interest, it's that the entertainment industry will let anyone get away with anything so long as everyone is making good money. Gibson's been allowed to nurse his bizarre worldviews (alongside a bottle of booze) for more than a decade. I'm glad everyone's woken up, but Hollywood and the readers of US magazine have been hitting the snooze alarm on this one for a looooong time now.
posted by mrkinla at 8:45 AM on August 6, 2006

Wonder if he insulted arabs, portoricans or blacks we'll have all this media BULLSHIT

Congratulations! You have won today's STFU Award, given to those folks who are tearing down straw men and are generally Full of It.

Congrats again!
posted by grubi at 9:11 AM on August 6, 2006

Some think Gibson is a leftist.

Some That's a very right-wing blog you're reading. They would of course like to stick him in the other camp, in any camp but their own. But he appears to be much farther to the right than to the left. Like Pat Buchanan, Gibson is not for the Iraq war, and he's not strong on Bush, but he's no lefty: he's anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-gun, pro-death penalty. He's left like the pope is left.
posted by pracowity at 9:30 AM on August 6, 2006

Some think Gibson is a leftist.

I'm confused. Is hating a group a left or right thing today?

*gasp* Is it possible that Gibson doesn't fit in one of the two narrow and arbitrarily defined categories that we pigeonhole everyone into? Shocking!

Here's the bottomline, though. Even if Gibson is an anti-Semite, what does it really matter? It's not like he's hurting anyone. As opposed to the drunk driving that everyone seems to be ignoring, which actually could have hurt someone. It's not as though we're talking about someone setting anti-Semitic policy that could actually effect people. All we're talking about is one man's drunken slurs that don't effect the public in any way whatsoever.

The extremists on the Left are simply using this incident the same way that extremists on the Right use issues like gay marriage--to rile people up and keep them distracted from the issues that actually do matter.
posted by magodesky at 9:41 AM on August 6, 2006

Even if Gibson is an anti-Semite, what does it really matter? It's not like he's hurting anyone.

Right, he's only a powerful American billionaire who has a hand in setting the tone and content of the popular media pablum the rest of us get fed by proxy. How can you even suggest that Mel Gibson is harmless after the Passion of the Christ fiasco?
posted by Hildegarde at 9:47 AM on August 6, 2006

Mel Gibson picked out what I'm wearing today.
posted by NationalKato at 10:03 AM on August 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

Here's the bottomline, though. Even if Gibson is an anti-Semite, what does it really matter? It's not like he's hurting anyone.

In general, ... or compared to a random cartoonist published in an obscure Danish paper?
posted by boaz at 10:05 AM on August 6, 2006

Good gravy, the man is a celebrity. He is a celebrity who apparently might have a problem with Jewish people. I'm willing to wager Jewish people have encountered that before. There have probably even been other powerful people who didn't like Jewish people.

Americans on the other hand, have a real problem with overt racism and anti-Semitism. (According to this article [warning, you have to click on an ad to get to read it] and the evidence of my own eyes.)

Yes he is influential, I guess. Does he have his own line of cologne, clothing, chain restaurants, self-help books or a talk show? No? Well, that's something else all together then. Unless Mr. Gibson actively works to advance his secret agenda of not liking Jewish people, I think we'll all be OK. As long as Mel apologizes like crazy, America will endure and anti-semitism will fade into the background to rejoin racism, the class wars, and a vague sense of unease about Canada.

Mel on the other hand might have a few problems. According to Adam Sandler, there are many Jewish people in Hollywood. Not all of them might have been bothered by Mr. Gibson's comments, but some of them might have been and if just one of them is influential, Mel might be in for some difficulties. He might be able to finance his own films, but getting actors for his films, crew, catering, grips (whatever the hell they do), he needs all of those people, and Hollywood is the place where they are.

Also, if there happen to exist in Hollywood, people who like to see a big person taken down a notch or two, Mel might have a problem.

If there are people in Hollywood who think there is money to be made off of Mr. Gibson's misery, he might have a problem.

As evidence, I point to exhibit A, TMZ.com (where much of this fracas began). TMZ.com is part of AOL which is owned by Time-Warner, which is run by, gasp, not a Jewish person , but an African-American, Richard D. Parsons. Mel didn't say African Americans started wars did he?

Although...I do see a Jessica Einhorn on the Board of Directors, and she used to work for the World Bank. Maybe it is all a conspiracy.
posted by BeReasonable at 10:37 AM on August 6, 2006

Unless Mr. Gibson actively works to advance his secret agenda of not liking Jewish people...

Well, he did make a movie that was very popular and had a lot of people calling him out for its anti-semitic elements.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:46 AM on August 6, 2006

How can you even suggest that Mel Gibson is harmless after the Passion of the Christ fiasco?

The Passion of the Christ fiasco? Right. Because I'm sure we all remember the tragic events of 2/25 in which millions of innocent people lost their lives to screenings of The Passion.

In general, ... or compared to a random cartoonist published in an obscure Danish paper?

How can you suggest that these two incidents are even close to being comparable? Jyllands-Posten made a thought-out, conscious decision to publish offensive cartoons in a public newspaper. Mel Gibson made a stupid comment while he was drunk that wasn't even meant for public consumption. How exactly are these comparable?
posted by magodesky at 11:06 AM on August 6, 2006

.

(Mel's Career)
posted by toastchee at 11:26 AM on August 6, 2006

I'm so pissed at Gibson right now. And it has nothing really to do with the events of the last couple of weeks. I mean the anti-Semitism is bullshit, but lots of actors and people in general have things about them I really hate.

No, I'm pissed at Gibson because, at one time, he made fun movies. I enjoyed Lethal Weapon. The Mad Max franchise was full of goodness. Payback, Maverick, hell even Chicken Run; the guy made movies that I liked.

Then he went nuts. I had hoped that eventually he would get his shit together and go back to making movies that people wanted to see, but with all the racist shit coming out, I'm guessing that he's pretty much done.

Which is a pity, because I was really looking forward to Mad Max 4: Fury Road.

So as far as I'm concerned Mel Gibson died in a tragic accident while filming the Singing Detective in 2003. Everything we've seen since from him has actually been the work of an alien doppelganger sent here to confuse and irritate us.

Fuck him.
posted by quin at 12:00 PM on August 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

How exactly are these comparable?

"It's not like [they're] hurting anyone."
"It's not as though we're talking about someone setting ... policy that could actually effect people."
"All we're talking about is one man's ... slurs that don't effect the public in any way whatsoever."

But really, I'm just trying to see how worked up you'll get trying arguing about the unimportance of this.
posted by boaz at 12:15 PM on August 6, 2006

Hildegarde: Right, he's only a powerful American billionaire who has a hand in setting the tone and content of the popular media pablum the rest of us get fed by proxy. How can you even suggest that Mel Gibson is harmless after the Passion of the Christ fiasco?

Fisaco????? Um... there was a movie that he made. It did well at the box office and inspired millions to uprise against our Jewish masters also on DVD. How is that a harmful fiasco?

quin: No, I'm pissed at Gibson because, at one time, he made fun movies.Then he went nuts.

When did he go nuts (at least career-wise)? The only Mel Gibson movie I ever saw that was a complete waste of time and money was "What Women Want." He's a good enough performer that even in "bad" movies, his performance makes it bearable or interesting.

The fact that he's been a major player in Hollywood despite being (apparently) anti-gay, anti-Jewish, and an ultra-conservative Christian kind of shows how good he is. Damn, I think I should watch Braveheart tonight.
posted by b_thinky at 1:22 PM on August 6, 2006

How is that a harmful fiasco?

I didn't call it a harmful fiasco, I called it a fiasco, because Mel Gibson made a disgustingly violent and bloody movie that clearly pinned the blame for the death of Jesus on the Jews, and lots and lots of thinking people didn't much like that (including many Christians). And he sure went out of his way to rile up all the nutty Christians, got the churches to do his publicity work for him (which turned into a massive spam comment compaign in the blogosphere) and then the press got a hold of the fact that his father (and likely Mel) thinks the holocaust was a hoax. He apparently wanted to do some kind of serious, gravitas religious thing with this film; it turned into a screaming, bloody, anti-semitic, anti-catholic, spammy mess.

That is the very definition a fiasco.
posted by Hildegarde at 3:32 PM on August 6, 2006

I didn't call it a harmful fiasco...

Actually, what you said was, "How can you even suggest that Mel Gibson is harmless after the Passion of the Christ fiasco?" While it's true that you didn't use the exact phrase "harmful fiasco," the implication is certainly there. So my question is, who was harmed by The Passion of the Christ?
posted by magodesky at 5:22 PM on August 6, 2006

b_thinky, I think it was when went from doing two movies a year to doing one movie every two years.

He's a good enough performer that even in "bad" movies, his performance makes it bearable or interesting.

I don't disagree, but what good work has he done since directing the Passion? Don't get me wrong, I would love to find out that he really does have an alcohol problem (did I really just type that?) and after some therapy, he kicks the sauce, puts all this controversy behind him and gets back to making good movies. But I just don't see that happening.
posted by quin at 5:23 PM on August 6, 2006

He's not really that good of an actor. He's just the Hollywood pretty face with a wild streak. That sells. He can't really act for crap, unless of course he plays himself. Now that he is aging, and his dark side revealed, he is facing tough times. Of course, a small, or perhaps not so small, town could probably survive quite well off of his accumulated earnings. So should he really care? I don't dislike Mel, but these latest incidents portray him as a very hateful person. How sad.
posted by caddis at 5:36 PM on August 6, 2006

As evidence, I point to exhibit A, TMZ.com (where much of this fracas began). TMZ.com is part of AOL which is owned by Time-Warner, which is run by, gasp, not a Jewish person , but an African-American, Richard D. Parsons. Mel didn't say African Americans started wars did he?

Afrigan Americans started the US Civil War.
posted by delmoi at 6:16 PM on August 6, 2006

Also I kinda want to see Apacalypto now.
posted by delmoi at 6:19 PM on August 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

Damn Fuckin' Jews... Always startin' wars and shit... Fuckin Jew war starters
posted by Debaser626 at 7:59 PM on August 6, 2006

I don't disagree, but what good work has he done since directing the Passion?

Um... wasn't the Passion like two years ago? I think he's been working on this big Apocolypto thing for a while. We'll see how that pans out.
posted by b_thinky at 10:27 PM on August 6, 2006

Yeah, The Passion was only released in 2004. You gotta give him a chance. Apocalypto's coming out soon, and that looks like it might have potential. But if that's not your cup of tea, Mel's apparently going to be getting back into acting in Under and Alone, Sam and George, and, oddly enough, an Indian film entitled Tree of Life.
posted by magodesky at 5:57 AM on August 7, 2006

boaz writes "In general, ... or compared to a random cartoonist published in an obscure Danish paper?"

You know, it took several months and an organized campaign by extremist clerics for the cartoon outrage to "spontaneously materialize".
posted by clevershark at 6:08 AM on August 7, 2006

“Wonder if he insulted arabs, portoricans or blacks we'll have all this media BULLSHIT”

Totally. Notice how many JEWS are angry at Mel Gibson? And how suddenly he’s all over the media. That can’t be a coincidence.
*struggles to maintain straight face*
posted by Smedleyman at 10:22 AM on August 7, 2006

I can't believe so many people here are shrugging this off. Celebrities like Gibson have a huge influence on people's attitudes. His anti-Semitism makes people think it's OK for them to harbor those feelings too.
posted by Tuffy at 8:00 AM on August 9, 2006

Mel blames the world's wars on kinkajous:

http://catlebrity.blogspot.com/2006/08/mel-gibson-blames-kinkajous-for-all.html
posted by Tuffy at 7:52 PM on August 14, 2006