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Re: Robert Downey, Jr. urges H'wood: "Forgive Mel"
Robert Downey, Jr. urges Hollywood to: "Forgive Mel Gibson"
by Brent Lang / Reuters
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It was supposed to be Robert Downey Jr.'s night, but somehow Friday's American Cinematheque Award ceremony became all about Mel Gibson.
When the evening's honoree took to the stage at the Beverly Hills Hilton to accept his doorstop, he had a clear message for Hollywood.
"I urge you to forgive my friend his trespasses," Downey said to loud applause. "Allow him to pursue this art without shame."
It was Gibson who handed out the award to the "Iron Man" star. That was a choice Downey made clear he had made in part to help his friend rehabilitate his image.
Gibson has become something of an industry pariah in the wake of taped phone calls during which he had used racial slurs and threatened to beat his estranged girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. Prior to that, Gibson was already on thin ice with Hollywood, having made anti-Semitic remarks when he was arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence.
Gibson was dropped from a cameo in "Hangover 2" after cast-members rebelled, although lately Warner Brothers has made a deal with the actor-director to explore an action film about a Biblical-era Jewish rebellion against oppressors. That too has drawn angry responses from Jewish leaders.
Downey, who had well-publicized bouts with drinking and drug abuse, said that by sticking up for Gibson, he was simply returning the favor. After his imprisonment and arrests on drug charges made him uninsurable and thus prevented him from being hired in Hollywood, it was Gibson who stepped up and paid his insurance bond on the 2003 film "The Singing Detective."
"He kept a roof over my head and put food on my table," Downey remembered.
He said that all Gibson asked in return was that Downey do the same for another person who was struggling.
"It is reasonable to assume he didn't know the next guy would be him," Downey joked.
In response, Gibson mockingly hit his head against the set.
It's not clear if the gambit worked. Gibson's appearance in a sketch video ribbing Downey for playing a white man pretending to be a black man in "Tropic Thunder" drew laughs, but some were of the uncomfortable variety.
Moreover, the "Lethal Weapon" star stuck close by his friend and fellow presenter Jodie Foster when he entered the hotel ballroom and remained affixed to her throughout the evening as if she were a bulwark against an unfriendly press and public.
However, as Downey has demonstrated, Hollywood loves a comeback.
As "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau said of Downey at one point during the evening: "Not since Joseph in the Bible went from prison to prophecy has someone elevated themselves from so low."
Now it's Gibson's turn to pull off a miracle.
Re: Robert Downey, Jr. urges H'wood: "Forgive Mel"
Very cool story. Love Mel, and although I don't agree with what he did, I never understood at all the hellish backlash he got over it. Saying retarded stuff when you're drunk is very common, and he deal with Oksana was a HORRIBLE breakup, which tons of people have gone through and said horrendous stuff to try to scare and hurt the other as much as possible. Especially when kids are involved. Mel also felt used and embarrassed by the whole deal.
Not that he didn't deserve it.
But for an amazingly talented, and amazingly LIKEABLE actor to be cast off so violently, so quickly, was entirely unwarranted and without cause.
Downey's plea is one of the classiest things he's ever done, and not only through his story does he show the kind of man Mel is (or was), but shows the kind of man Downey is too.
P.S.
The Beaver is an AMAZING FILM for anyone who hasn't seen it
Re: Robert Downey, Jr. urges H'wood: "Forgive Mel"
polluxlm wrote:Jews own Hollywood, go figure. I love him both as an actor and as a director but let's face it, his career is dead.
They should add a third option to that saying of what not to do as a public figure "Get caught with a dead girl or a live boy..or offend a jew in public".
Re: Robert Downey, Jr. urges H'wood: "Forgive Mel"
Jews own Hollywood, go figure. I love him both as an actor and as a director but let's face it, his career is dead.
They should add a third option to that saying of what not to do as a public figure "Get caught with a dead girl or a live boy..or offend a jew in public".
Pretty much agree with the jew comment.
I still refuse to believe that all of this stems from Mel's drunken arrest.
I still think it all correlates back to "The Passion of the Christ". Mel went all over Hollywood to try and get the film financed, and at that moment found out how many Hollywood jew producers were his "fake friends". Every door in town was slammed in his face, and if it wasn't the jews, it was the atheists thinking the film was dead weight and could never appeal to a mainstream audience.
Mel finances it himself and makes it independent, BOOM half a billion dollars later, he basically told all of them the fuck off. Hollywood continued to pretend the film didn't exist. Every critic in town had the film in their Top-5 "best films of the year" list, many calling for Passion to win best picture, Gibson best director, and some even saying Caviziel should win an Oscar for best actor.
The Academy basically ignored the film's existance.
Why? Because if you believe in Christ... it pretty much was a totally accurate depiction of what happened. I'm not saying i'm anti-jew or anything. The bible teaches Israel has a right to exist, and I totally support that, not to mention jews have paid back the debt of killing the son of man years ago (years of prejudice, continuing in the middle east, plus anybody remember the holocaust?)
I say all of that, because the one issue I have with them is -- just accurately tell your religion's history. American Jews get so fuckin' offended so easily about that shit. Every little thing is anti-semetic.
Mel basically stood up to them and challenged them on it.
Guess what happened? They broke his fuckin' ass.
