Many Hollywood Jewish leaders silent on Gibson

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Superstar Mel Gibson goes on a
drunken anti-Semitic tirade and Hollywood’s powerful Jewish
community finds itself under attack for not speaking up
strongly enough in protest.

In the days since Gibson’s arrest on suspicion of drunk
driving after a wild ride down a Malibu highway, few of the
leading Jewish figures in the film industry have publicly
commented on Gibson’s barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

The actor was formally charged with drunk driving on
Wednesday, six days after his arrest and subsequent rant to a
police officer about Jews causing all the wars.

On Tuesday, Gibson issued a statement that said in part, “I
want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish
community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said…”

Former AOL Time Warner Vice Chairman Merv Adelman was so
incensed by the lack of outrage in an industry founded and led
by many Jews that he bought a quarter-page ad in the Los
Angeles Times to protest the lack of protest.

“Bigots have so often accused our community of being run by
Jews that I think it has entered our psyche. We have become so
defensive that when faced with a degrading and disgusting
incident starring a movie star, we as individuals remain
relatively silent,” he said in the ad.

“What would this community have done if Mel Gibson had
drunkenly ranted and raved about the dirty ‘Mexicans’ or for
that matter used the ‘N’ words disparagingly as he used the
word Jews…?” he asked.

Sounding a similar theme, the Times’s film industry
columnist Patrick Goldstein wondered aloud why the “Big Kahunas
of Hollywood” — men like director Steven Spielberg and studio
bigwigs like Universal’s Ron Meyer, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey
Katzenberg and Paramount’s Brad Grey have been silent.

HOLLYWOOD AVOIDS CONFLICT

A spokesman for Spielberg said the director was on vacation
and “uncontactable.”

Goldstein saw the silence of today’s Jewish leaders in
Hollywood as continuing a long established pattern of avoiding
trouble and trying not to offend — a pattern that saw actors
like Emmanuel Goldenberg and Muni Weisenfreund change their
names to Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni.

“They are all thinking, what happens if he comes out of
this and I’ve said something? He won’t work with me when I need
him,”‘ Goldstein quoted producer Howard Rosenman as saying.

TV network ABC on Tuesday pulled a miniseries about the
Holocaust that Gibson, a traditional Catholic who built his own
church in Malibu, was producing, but refused to say that the
cancellation was related to the controversy.

Filmmaker and Time magazine critic Richard Schickel said
Hollywood’s caution stems in part from that fear of speaking
out against one of the most bankable stars in the industry.

“I don’t think this is the only reason, but I think many
feel he will weather this storm and retain his clout as a star
and a director. And if this is what they are doing, that is
deplorable,” he said.

But Los Angeles Weekly film columnist Nikki Finke says that
there are people in Hollywood who are speaking out and who are
vowing they would not do business with Gibson in the future.

Among those who have spoken out are prominent agent Ari
Emanuel, who called for a boycott of Gibson, and Sony Pictures
Chairwoman Amy Pascal who called the actor’s comments
“incredibly disappointing.”

Finke said some of Gibson’s critics are people “who have
issues of their own” and might have been expected to show some
sympathy with a person with an admitted alcoholism problem.

“The problem with Hollywood is that it is one of the most
transparent of glass houses and usually the stones are coming
from outside in. You have to be careful when you are throwing
rocks from the inside because the whole place shatters,” she
said.

Reuters