Mel Gibson Will Be a Presenter at Golden Globes. Really, Hollywood?

Image by Getty Images

By Maia Efrem January 5, 2016

Golden Globes producers were “delighted to announce” that Mel Gibson will be among the presenters during this Sunday’s star-studded 73rd Golden Globes Awards. Really Hollywood Foreign Press?! Has everything been forgiven?

Let us refresh your memory.

The disgraced director and star is , DUI and domestic violence disputes with his ex-partner, Russian pianist Oksana Grigorieva.

In a 2006 drunk driving stop, Gibson said to his arresting officer, “Are you a Jew? Fucking Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

Gibson released a statement of apology shortly after the incident, “I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.”

But it’s diffcult to believe that he’s remorseful when you consider the fact that this was hardly his first anti-Semitic tirade, or his last.

When asked about his comments by Jewish Los Angeles KTLA 5 reporter, Sam Rubin, Gibson responded, “you got a dog in this fight?” Rubin did not say anything at first, but offered these comments to his viewers after the fact:

And according to actress Winona Ryder, when Gibson found out she was Jewish he called her an “oven-dodger.”

And then there’s always Gibson’s father, Hutton Gibson, a known Holocaust denier who claims that most of what historians say about the Holocaust is fiction. In a 2003 interview with the New York Times he said, “Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body. It takes one liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, 6 million?”

But there is one person who is pretty happy about this new development. Sharp-tongued comedian, and host of the Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais welcomed the news with his trademark irreverent humor.

Mel Gibson is presenting an award at The Golden Globes. Thank you Jesus. pic.twitter.com/70iCAqoraz

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) January 5, 2016

The two have crossed paths before, when introducing Gibson in 2010, Gervais quipped, “I like drink as much as the next man, unless the next man is Mel Gibson.”

When Gervais was presenting at the Emmy’s later that year, he said, “He’s [Gibson] been through a lot. Not as much as the Jews,” to the sound of thunderous applause.

Maia Efrem is the former research editor and assistant to the editor and was also responsible for the Forward’s annual Salary Survey. Previously she served as the editor of Blognik Beat, a blog written by students who emigrated from or have ties to the Former Soviet Union. Maia is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

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