Los Angeles- Roger Friedman posts on fox news: Don’t believe for a second the new stories that Mel Gibson was “suicidal” on Friday night because of his alcoholism.
I do believe he wishes he were dead – since his career is – but that’s another story. Right now, Gibson is in a heavier spin mode than a washing machine.
The first move was the claim that he’d been a raging out-of-control alcoholic for years. This was news to those of us who’ve seen him go from movie to movie with laser-like focus. If Gibson had been a wild drinker all this time, then he really deserved an Academy Award.
In Hollywood, he’s always been a hard-working – if unpopular – producer, director and actor. If he’d been hitting the bottle night and day, it would have been impossible for him to produce and direct epics like “Braveheart” and “The Passion of the Christ,” build a church and real estate complex in Malibu and star in “What Women Want,” over the past decade.
No, I do believe that breathless revelations now about Gibson are designed for sympathy only. But he’s not going to get it. For one thing, Gibson has not – I repeat in capital letters HAS NOT – entered into a serious rehab program for alcohol of any kind. He’s going to AA meetings, but he has not checked himself into a 28-day program at a place like the Betty Ford Clinic or Hazelden.
The director of such a program was quoted yesterday by wire services commenting on Gibson’s choice of rehab. This guy is right in Malibu at the Promises center. If Gibson were serious about his drinking or his apology, he wouldn’t have to travel more than a couple of miles to make it happen. The fact is he just isn’t.
On the other hand, some people in Hollywood are already stepping up to the plate and criticizing Gibson for what he’s done. Ari Emanuel, the star agent at Endeavor, has already called for a boycott of working with Gibson until this entire scandal is sorted out. Bravo!
Integrity is in short supply in the film business. It takes guts for Emanuel to take this position. ABC-TV has joined in by cancelling Gibson’s proposed Holocaust mini-series. The next step will be for Disney to postpone or cancel its release of Gibson’s film “Apocalypto,” due in December.