The timing of today’s announcement from the Swiss that fugitive director Roman Polanski will not face extradition to the United States coming just a couple days after we all witnessed Hollywood’s reaction to the audio tape of Mel Gibson’s raging, racist rant is fitting. What an interesting opportunity for a side-by-side look at Leftist Hollywood’s values. It’s unlikely that anyone who’s considered a serious part of the Hollywood community will openly work with Mel Gibson again for a long, long time — if ever. WME, his agency, announced they had dropped him as a client within minutes of the release of the recording, and courtesy of the L.A. Times, the warning has already gone out making clear that anyone foolish enough to work with Gibson again will pay a heavy price: There’s little chance he’ll land at another agency anytime soon — signing would bring down a horrible avalanche of bad PR to any agency that got within smelling distance and, more to the craven point, any agent that signs him has little hope of booking him any roles anyway since there isn’t a studio in town that will hire Gibson. So toxic is the “Braveheart” director that the L.A. Times also “ suggested ” that now would be a “good time” for Tinseltowners to loudly and proudly condemn the former superstar, and a special point was made to single out his longtime friend Jodie Foster (who just finished directing a film that stars Gibson): Actually, strike that, because even now the silence is deafening. This would seem like a good time to make a public statement, Jodie Foster, longtime friendship or not. While I find the L.A. Times’ stand-up-and-be-counted witch huntery a little nauseating, it pales in comparison to Gibson’s sub-human attempt to emotionally break the mother of his child in two with a stream of racist-fueled hate unlike anything I’ve heard before. This is a fool-me-once situation if there ever was one. Like many, I bought Gibson’s contrition tour after his sexist, anti-Semitic tirade in 2006. But how anyone could work with him now is beyond me, and no one in Hollywood is likely to. And yet, who will Hollywood work with? As I write this, Charlie Sheen is about to once again enjoy the superstar treatment on the set of his hit sitcom “Two and a Half Men” even though reports suggest he’s about to plead no contest to charges of domestic violence after allegedly pinning his wife to a bed with a knife to her throat. And today, throughout much of Tinseltown , you can hear the exhales of relief and imagine the quiet celebrating now that their favorite child rapist is once again free to move about the world amongst all the beautiful people eager to worship him. Leftist Hollywood should consider themselves lucky The Fates gave them an entire weekend to feel all sanctimonious and superior about themselves over the Mel Gibson situation before reminding them of what they really are with today’s Polanski news. Two days is two more than they deserved. Originally published at Big Hollywood .
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Hollywood Rorschach: Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen and Child Rapist Polanski
