10 Insane Things You Won't Believe Actors Got Away With in Real Life

by Amy Maynard

1. Mel Gibson Just... Being Mel Gibson

Where to start with Mel Gibson? His homophobic remarks back around the time of Braveheart'? His multiple incidents of anti-Semitism, including the questionable portrayal of Jews in The Passion of the Christ and his conspiracy theories about Jews starting 'all wars' when he was arrested for DUI? The abandoning of his film about the Maccabees when Joe Ersterhasz recorded him raving like a madman? When he called a female police officer 'sugar tits'? The menacing voice calls to his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, where in between his misogynistic remarks he said that she should be 'raped by a pack of n___rs?' There are some sympathetic elements to Mel Gibson's fall from grace. He has been diagnosed with manic depression and it would suck to be secretly recorded all the time. But on the other hand, I know a lot of manic depressives who are lovely, functioning people thanks to medication and their own desire to be good citizens, and people seem to be obsessed with recording Gibson precisely because he spews out this racist, sexist, homophobic stuff. Gibson was a good actor, very likely is still a good actor, but that doesn't excuse the fact that he's a jerk. Jerks are all around us. We work with them, we have to deal with them on public transport, we befriend them on Facebook and then six statuses about women being 'hoors' later, we realise our mistake and block them faster than you can say 'bigot'. Sometimes they appear on our movie screens. These people deserve our disapproval - they shouldn't be allowed to 'get away with it' - because they have no empathy for people that are different from them, and have a narrow worldview. So even though Mel Gibson wakes up in a mansion, and probably has an expansive view of beautiful scenery, I can only pity him. Because unless something changes in the future, he's blinded by his own bitterness and hatred. Did we miss any examples of actors behaving disgracefully? Share your thoughts below.

Contributor

Amy Maynard is a PhD candidate by day, and a pop culture pundit by night. She enjoys drinking red wine, and reeks of Burberry perfume and cigar smoke.