John Lopez in Vanity Fair:
Over the past few days, Radar online has been leaking tape after tape of Mel Gibson's phone tirades with his erstwhile partner, and mother of his child, Oksana Grigorieva—for whom Gibson left his wife Robyn of 25 years. So far, they've released about 20 minutes of unparalleled verbal abuse and there are promises of more to come, which has many asking if Gibson, as a public persona, can ever recover from this. Gibson was dropped by his agency William Morris Endeavor a day before the death of his longtime agent, Ed Limato; the futures of his film projects, among them a Viking epic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jodie Foster's upcoming film The Beaver, have been called into doubt; and it looks like the tapes will play a crucial role in the criminal investigation into charges of domestic violence. Finally, the resounding silence of his Hollywood colleagues' refusal to comment tolls like a bell for Mel Gibson's career.
Inevitably, there have been those who say given time and public amnesia, Gibson will one day have a career again. However, the collective damage of Gibson's public sins—anti-Semitic remarks, drunk driving, defense of his father's controversial views on the Holocaust—has built up like toxins in the liver of a life-long alcoholic. One can't help but wonder if the whole organ will just finally collapse under massive abuse. Yet, what's most frightening about the tapes is that the insouciant, manic charm which has always marked Gibson's screen persona is all too recongizable in his poisonously sarcastic verbal rage and breathless hurt.
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