People Magazine has an inset on their cover this week titled “What Happened to Mel? – The Inside Story.” Only the inside story, like much in People and just about everything on TMZ about this story, sounds straight from Mel’s camp and is all about how he’s doing. They focus less on trashing Oksana and more on painting Mel as this sympathetic character we should feel sorry for, eventually forgive, and welcome back with our wallets at the box office. In my case that’s never going to happen and I have no sympathy for a verbally and probably physically abusive man. I’ve never heard anyone use threats and taunts as awful and cruel as the things he said to Oksana. The People article includes a lot of pictures of “classic” Mel back when we were drooling over his ass in Lethal Weapon and People declared him the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1985. As cute and as normal as he looked back then, he’s no longer that guy and I can’t get “I hope you get raped by a pack of n*” out of my head when I look at him.

Here’s some of People’s article, in which they basically tell us that Mel is a good guy at heart but has a drinking problem. They mention the tapes and Oksana’s allegations that he hit her, but never mention the leaked photos of her (alleged) injuries or the baby’s (alleged) injuries. They also never quote any of the terrible things Mel said in the tapes! (Their only quote from his tapes is that he said “I don’t have any f’ing money,” which they refute.) It’s all “poor Mel, he’s having a hard time”:

Gibson spent July 17 and 18 with Lucia in which Malibu home. “They had a great weekend,” says someone close to him. “Mel is doing pretty well, considering. He feels the judicial system will do him right.”

Yet it’s clear something has gone very wrong in the life of Mel Gibson, a star who managed to stay on top for decades while struggling with issues including alcoholism and near-suicidal depression. At first the very traits that have now boiled over into rage – intensity, edginess, a blunt macho charm – were what made him a superstar. Gibson broke out as a violent loner in 1979s Mad Max and shot onto the A-list as a crazed cop in the Lethal Weapon movies. His image would remain roughly the same for the next two decades: a guy’s guy who was devoted to his wife, Robyn, and their seven children and loved by crew and castmates but who got a little while away from work. “Certainly he liked to drink,” says his friend and producer Thom Mount, who worked with Gibson on 1988’s Tequila Sunrise. “Drinking was part of his ethods, but it never impacted the picture negatively. He drank socially with the crew, and he was extremely popular with them…

“Mel became a superstar so quickly that whatever his issues were – religious, feminist – he never got to work them out,” says Mount. “Mel has a good heart. But he is frustrated by a lot of things right now.”

While few in Hollywood have publicly rallied to Gibson’s side, many are reluctant to condemn him. Several colleagues cite Gibson’s own loyalties to struggling stars. In 2003, he personally paid for the insurance bond that allowed Robert Downey Jr. to work on a movie and revive a career all but destroyed by his drug use. At a Hollywood party around that time, “Mel was there being very protective of Robert and making sure he wasn’t drinking,” says a longtime Gibson friend, acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. “Mel believed in him…”

Even so, many colleagues are shocked by the vitriol heard in Gibson’s conversations with Girgorieva. Says a female collaborator: “This is not the Mel I know. He could get angry. He could be mad. But screaming mad like on these tapes? Never.” Darlene Love, a costar in four Lethal Weapon movies who is African-American, says Gibson “has been a brother and friend to me. I love and support him 100 percent.”

Whatever caused Gibson’s controlled intensity to erupt into outright fury, he must now deal with the consequences and try and put his shattered life back together. “People can slam Mel all they want, and the guy has made some truly dreadful mistakes, but don’t count him out,” says Mount. “The talent that he has cannot be lost. His personal life is something he needs to get under control. And if he does that, then gradually he will come back from this.

[From People magazine, print edition, August 2, 2010]

It’s like they got every person who has ever known Mel in any capacity who was willing to go on the record with a positive quote, and it amounted to three people I’d never heard of. To People it’s all about us “slamming” Mel by actually repeating the threatening, abusive, and cruel things he said to the mother of his child. I’m surprised they didn’t use the terms “baiting,” “extortion,” or “pushing his buttons.” Mel is an abuser and he admitted it on tape. Spin and twist it and add Oksana’s potential motivations and it doesn’t change the evidence.

As for whether Gibson is going broke as he bitched about on tape, People reports that Mel’s “fortune is estimated at close to $1 billion,” but that he “could be on the hook for up to $500 million.” Mel is selling assets like art and his Malibu home, and People quotes a source who said “He provides for eight children and is going through a divorce. A lot of his money isn’t in liquid form.” Poor angry abusive billionaire Mel. All he wants is a beej and our sympathy.

Extortion claim was thrown out by Mel’s people to discredit Oksana
In additional never-ending Mel news, TMZ denies the report from Radar that Mel said he wanted “Jewish blood” on his hands. They report that Oksana claims Mel threatened TMZ head Harvey Levin with death after they published the news on his anti-Semitic rant. However, they think Oksana made that story up because the Sheriff’s department denies that they were given that information and some of the details didn’t check out.

TMZ has admitted, though, that the story about Oksana trying to extort money from Mel in exchange for the tapes was false and that “Mel and his team are inventing false charges against Oksana as a retaliatory measure to take the heat off of Mel.”

And now Radar has the details of the jealous fit that Mel had on the day he flipped out on Oksana. In case you care, he accused her of being too nice to the gardener. But TMZ tells us that he tried to quit smoking that day, as if that excuses the disgusting things he said. There’s some positive news in all this. Gibson has “voluntarily arranged for an independent observer to be present when he visits with his daughter,” according to TMZ. A domestic violence case against Mel is still pending in LA county while the investigation by the Department of Children and Family Services is also underway. People reports that “Gibson couldface charges including battery, criminal threats and child endangerment (and could be looking at 90 days in jail if convicted), [but] if a judge rules he was illegally taped “the case against him could fall apart and it could be Oksana who’ll be in trouble.” [says L.A. criminal defense attorney Steve Sitkoff.]