Robert Downey Jr. has certainly had his ups and downs with chemical dependency perhaps triggered by career lulls, but now with the Iron Man series, he is at the height of his powers. Mel Gibson, however, has seen better days, especially after an anti-semitic tirade during a DUI arrest. Since then he has become a byword for anti-semitism.
Robert Downey Jr. thinks he should be forgiven, insisting he is completely different and yet still the same (if that is possible). According to ShalomLife, Robert Downey thinks Gibson has changed “so much.”Nobody should make the case for someone who wants forgiveness but hasn’t changed, but he’s a fundamentally different guy. I think it was just the very worst aspects of somebody’s psyche being treated as though they were a blanket statement of a person.”
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Okay, I like Robert Downey Jr. as much as the next person, but there is something contradictory about his statements. He says Gibson should demonstrate he has changed from his anti-Semitic past. Shouldn’t we hear a statement from Gibson himself? Shouldn’t we hear about how he has given or volunteered for Jewish charities? Why have Robert Downey Jr. advocate on your behalf , Mel? If you feel the Jewish thing is an albatross around your neck, it is up to you to solve the problem. And really, if you had gone to a Chabad telethon or given to Hadassah, sure some would have sneered “oy, lip service” but it would have seemed at least more persuasive than sending Robert Downey and Jodie Foster to go kissing up to you in front of a camera to say you were A-okay.
I take this as seriously as the Donald Sterling issue and the Michael Richards issue. Michael Richards cannot get a comedy gig because he hysterically verbally attacked African Americans in his audience. People just won’t feel comfortable around him. Can you blame them? As much as I loved him as Kramer on Seinfeld, thought he was the latter day Danny Kaye, if Whoopi Golderberg were to say she didn’t feel comfortable performing with him, who am I to tell her to get over it? Did Donald Sterling deserve to lose the Clippers. Well, hell yeah. Who needs a racist owner of an NBA team. And who needs an anti-Semite (I would say in Hollywood, but really, anywhere). Mel Gibson could make it right with the Yidden. But it will take a heck of a lot of doing and it has to be from him, not from an emissary.
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