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(July 14) -- In 2006, there was the boozy anti-Semitic rant. Now comes Mel Gibson's encore, as recorded in tapes of him yelling a racist slur at his ex-girlfriend. As a result, Gibson has been dropped by his agency, WME, and no other agency is lining up to take its place.
And yet many in Hollywood have gone out of their way to defend Roman Polanski, who the United States has been trying to extradite to answer for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977. The director pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor but left the country before he could be sentenced. In the latest twist in the long case, the Swiss, which had detained Polanski after he traveled to the country to pick up a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, denied the extradition request after raising questions about the 1978 trial and freed the now 76-year-old director.
Rape is a crime. Being a racist is not. That's not a case for letting Gibson off the hook -- by all means blacklist racists -- but an indictment of Hollywood's hypocrisy.
At least there's been consistency in one instance: Whoopi Goldberg, who has risen to the defense of both Oscar-decorated filmmakers. Of Polanski, Goldberg coined the term "rape-rape," distinguishing between that (a real no-no, apparently) and what Polanski did. She has similarly leaped to Gibson's defense. "I know Mel, and I know he's not a racist. ... He may be a bonehead," she said. "I can't sit and say that he's a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids."
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Jul 14, 2010 – 9:15 AM
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