the reactions to mel from variously:
Me, for more thoughts on all this a hollywood mid-level type who still needs to climb the ladder to success
Ari Emanuel, who runs the Endeavor agency and is rahm's brother
the poorman, who does nothing involving hollywood but is super-smart
brian lowry, who is the head tv critic for variety and writes the most political column there, and last but not least
rob schnieder.
The Poor Man Institute
the poor man answers your mel gibson questions. Definitively. i've often drunk to the point of hating belgians, myself (0.13).
huzzah to ari emanuel (also known as jeremy piven, confusingly) for his piece in the huffpo as well. he shows guts by saying hollywood should shun gibson. inasmuch as an agent is showing guts by trying to sabotage another agent's client's opportunity to work on big movies that his own client...
wow, is that cynical. i take it back, i take it back. i genuinely believe that what mr. emanuel is saying is right. no one who doesn't believe what mel believes, i.e. that the holocaust is overblown, and that jews are belligerent scum should hire him. those that agree with those views, by all means. i'm sure the iranian film commission and president ahmenijad would be happy to put mel in the new "drive israel into the sea" thriller.
i will stop now. i'm hoping to still be hired by someone someday in this business, and i believe there is still a bridge left unburned.
although...
Brian Lowry makes some excellent points as well here in Variety. since it is behind a moneywall, to wit:
AT FIRST GLANCE, it would be hard to imagine stranger bedfellows than Mel Gibson and Oliver Stone.
Still, advance publicity surrounding Stone's fundamentally apolitical film "World Trade Center" (which prompted second-guessing from conservatives over whether the conspiracy-minded filmmaker is an appropriate vessel for this patriotic tale) gave way to talk of "professionally shunning" Gibson, as Endeavor principal Ari Emanuel suggested on Huffingtonpost.com.
The anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Gibson following his drunk-driving arrest are contemptible, just as some of Stone's movies bastardize history. Nevertheless, the broader notion of applying ideological or character tests to talent -- or prejudging projects based on who's associated with them -- is as close to the proverbial slippery slope as anyone should be eager to step.
Right-wing pundits already have a field day demonizing "Hollywood liberals," tarring even benign projects with that label. Some threw silly hissy fits over "Superman Returns" because the Man of Steel is said to stand for "truth, justice, all that stuff" -- ostensibly dropping "the American way" from his repertoire. Damn ungrateful Kryptonian illegal aliens.
Lost amid the din, of course, is the ideal of evaluating artistic works on their merits, as opposed to the increasingly common and distasteful practice of flatly dismissing any material from those with whom one disagrees.
The problem is that once you begin contemplating boycotts over boorish behavior and despicable opinions, where does it end? Good luck finding bankable casts for that next movie or TV show. Media moguls and sports tycoons, after all, have never exclusively employed choirboys, what with the historic link between big money and bigger excess.
Even before the inevitable apology tour, Gibson has cemented his status as a Leno punch line, and no one is required to work with or otherwise help further enrich him -- just as they needn't buy Dixie Chicks CDs, patronize Ludacris concerts or see Stone's next movie.
Clearly, it's naive to think such entertainment decisions can be disentangled from politics. Yet most Hollywood leaders' reticence to join in publicly pillorying Gibson might have something to do with this wider view, and the realization that allowing professional undertakings to become a referendum on personal lives is a slow conveyer belt to Hell -- one where the ox that's gored, in the long run, just might be their own.
That makes sense to me as well. i hate it when i think two people are right and they totally disagree with each other. it is such cognitive dissonance that makes me a liberal, i suppose.
and last, from today's variety, an ad rob schneider took out(no link provided, as it was only in print):
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY
from Rob Schneider
I, Rob Schneider, a l/2 Jew, pledge from this day forth to never
work with Me1 Gibson-actor-director-producer-and anti-Semite.
Even if Mr. Gibson offered me the lead role in "Passion of the Christ 2",
I, like Bernie Brillstein, would have to say "NO!" Even if Me1 had a juicy voice-
over role in his new flick "Apocalypto" andI spoke ancient Mayan, I, like
Bernie Brillstein would still have to say "NO!"
Even if "Apocalypto"is a gigantic smash and Mr. Gibson is quietly forgiven
by Hollywood's Power Brokers, and I was offered a lead role opposite Me1
Gibson's Father, (the Mad Max of Holocaust deniers) I, like Bernie Brillstein would likely have to say "NO!"
Even though I have just completed principal photography on my directorial debut in my upcoming motion picture "Big Stan" (A Prison Comedy) in which there is a Nazi gang leader, which apparently Mel would be PERRRR-FECT for, and I had a Time Machine and could go back in time and RE-CAST the lead Nazi, I, like Bernie Brillstein would most likely have to say "NO !
Of course that would be only after i talked with my financial backers,
some of whom share Mr. Gibson's hankering for a good bottle of Tequila.
Because, after all...
I don't get to call all the shots.
Sincerely Yours,
Rob Schneider
P.S. You won't see ME at Taverna Tony's in Malibu anytime soon!