While I was pleased that the LAT's Tim Rutten quoted from Friday's THR Mel Gibson piece, he was a tad rough on Gibson's motives for submitting to grilling from Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer. Of course he's trying to clear the air so that he can move on to sell his December release, Apocalypto. Nor does Gibson want the DUI controversy to be used to publicize the movie. His PR handler's mission is to help his client accomplish these things. It was up to Gibson to do a good job of it. (I loved the bit about splashing water on his face and hair to make his mug shot look good.) Clearly, it is easier for Gibson to cop to his alcoholism, which is a nasty disease to battle, than it is to dig into the root causes of his feelings about Jews. Yes, he was angry about how The Passion of the Christ was handled by the press, sight unseen, and he has issues with the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. But he still hasn't untangled all the old tapes in his head. I'm a Yankee fan and a knee-jerk Democrat mainly because I was raised that way.
