Entertainment

NBC validates Gibson’s anti-Semitism

It has been bothering the hell out of me, so let me ask you something:

If Mel Gibson were a born-and-raised repudiator and minimizer of American black slavery, if he made an epic movie depicting blacks as the scourge of humanity, and if, when arrested for one of his drunken driving episodes, he hit the arresting officer with a hateful spew about blacks, do you think Gibson would have been seated, front and center, at Jan. 13’s Sunday primetime Golden Globe Awards on NBC?

Do you think that NBC would have provided close-up cameos of Gibson as he sat, enthralled, listening to his friend, Jodie Foster, as she accepted a lifetime achievement award?

Do you think that Gibson would have even been invited? Do you think that Foster would have been honored unless she fully renounced and distanced herself from Gibson?

Well, do you?

I don’t. And for all good reasons.

The mere suggestion that Gibson in any way receive any positive attention by NBC or given the best seat in the house by the Golden Globes people would have ignited a furor — and a noble furor, too!

But Gibson’s, wild-headed even drunken attacks aren’t aimed at blacks, but at Jews, thus there he was, front and center, shown by NBC soaking up Foster’s words of gratitude.

But even the gutsiest of the irreverent will be selective with their indignations about hate-filled bigots.

Two years ago, Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais was bold enough to take shots from the podium at the dubious and reportedly dishonest process through which the awards are won and lost. That caused a sensation. And great laughter.

Gervais took a shot at Mel Gibson, too, but only about his excessive boozing. The fact that his boozing is accompanied by his ingrained hatred of Jews, well, such a thing would be too impolite to even mention.

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Speaking of Gervais (and I write as a fan of his from well before he became widely known in the US), his third and final season of “An Idiot Abroad” — a funny farce as seen on the Discovery Science Channel (Gervais sends feckless Karl Pilkington wandering the world) — is a terrible disappointment.

And I haven’t seen one episode.

Gervais, as seen in promos, has relied on the cheap, the backwards and the desperately low — the inclusion of a dwarf — to accompany Pilkington on his travels. Yep, dwarf gags are back. Nothing funnier than folks born with dwarfism.

It’s extra disappointing that, in Gervais, creator of “The Office” both here and, before that, the UK, one could rely on his humor to direct cutting ridicule at those who would rely on the naturally infirm, impaired or disabled for a laugh.

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The news and entertainment media are soooo easy.

Shortly after the Newtown elementary school massacre, Lady Gaga appeared onstage in Vancouver wearing plastic assault rifles, pointed at her audience, from her bra. Of course, everyone, at first and second glance, was appalled.

Well, no fooling. Might that not have been what Ms. Gaga had in mind when she and her promoters decided on such a costume? Wasn’t she looking to jolt all with another topical shock treatment?

She’s using Madonna’s playbook. Madonna’s m.o. for years has been to generate heat — publicity — through performances that purposefully attack the better senses. Recall her mock crucifixion and guns-out acts — both designed and guaranteed to cause condemnation and commotion?

It’s kinda like when the Ku Klux Klan announces that it plans to march down Main Street. The media jump on it, bringing protesters and, most importantly, media. But what would happen if the Klan marched down a completely empty Main Street? And then another, and another?

Or, as one Klansman said to the other, “I think I’ll leave the bullhorn in the truck.”