Gibson doesn't know 'what women want'
Source: Agencies |
July 15, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN 1985, Mel Gibson was declared People magazine's first ever "Sexiest Man Alive." Ten years ago, women flocked to see him in "What Women Want" playing a chauvinistic executive who finds he can read the female mind.
But in the last week, tape recordings apparently with the Oscar-winning actor ranting and cursing his former girlfriend in angry tirades that included racial and sexist slurs have shocked and alienated his female fans, media watchers say.
Yet unlike public condemnation from movie industry big-wigs over Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic outburst in 2006, there has been little official comment about his misogynist tirade - a reflection, some say, of lack of female clout in Hollywood.
"It is shocking to hear from this man, who has such charm and seeming intelligence in his film roles, but has emerged as a dastardly anti-hero," said HollywoodLife.com editor Bonnie Fuller. "Guess what? Mel doesn't know 'what women want'."
Celebrity website RadarOnline.com on Tuesday made public a third expletive-laced phone call said to be between Gibson, 54, and Oksana Grigorieva, 40, the mother of his eight month-old daughter. The pair are locked in a bitter court battle.
Los Angeles sheriffs have launched a domestic violence probe into allegations that Gibson punched Grigorieva in the face in January.
In the tapes, the enraged voice said to be Gibson calls Grigorieva a "whore," a "mentally deprived idiot" and a "pig in heat." He also takes racist jabs at Latinos and African-Americans.
Yet the media coverage and any public outrage have focused more on the damage to Gibson's career, and his racist slurs, than his sexist invective.
While some industry watchers have said his career will survive given his financial ability to fund his own projects, there seems little doubt that many of the women who once admired Gibson will now leave him behind.
"I've had a lot of people who are professionals in the industry say to me that when you alienate women, they never come back," said Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter.
But in the last week, tape recordings apparently with the Oscar-winning actor ranting and cursing his former girlfriend in angry tirades that included racial and sexist slurs have shocked and alienated his female fans, media watchers say.
Yet unlike public condemnation from movie industry big-wigs over Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic outburst in 2006, there has been little official comment about his misogynist tirade - a reflection, some say, of lack of female clout in Hollywood.
"It is shocking to hear from this man, who has such charm and seeming intelligence in his film roles, but has emerged as a dastardly anti-hero," said HollywoodLife.com editor Bonnie Fuller. "Guess what? Mel doesn't know 'what women want'."
Celebrity website RadarOnline.com on Tuesday made public a third expletive-laced phone call said to be between Gibson, 54, and Oksana Grigorieva, 40, the mother of his eight month-old daughter. The pair are locked in a bitter court battle.
Los Angeles sheriffs have launched a domestic violence probe into allegations that Gibson punched Grigorieva in the face in January.
In the tapes, the enraged voice said to be Gibson calls Grigorieva a "whore," a "mentally deprived idiot" and a "pig in heat." He also takes racist jabs at Latinos and African-Americans.
Yet the media coverage and any public outrage have focused more on the damage to Gibson's career, and his racist slurs, than his sexist invective.
While some industry watchers have said his career will survive given his financial ability to fund his own projects, there seems little doubt that many of the women who once admired Gibson will now leave him behind.
"I've had a lot of people who are professionals in the industry say to me that when you alienate women, they never come back," said Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter.
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