When the public believes you’ve been caught on tape saying hurtful and racist comments, then ‘furious’ is one of the last words that Mel Gibson should want used and associated with him, says a leading crisis management PR expert.
‘The Hangover 2’ director Todd Phillips announced last week that Liam Neeson would replace Mel Gibson in the film after members of the cast and crew objected to Gibson’s involvement.
Now, the ‘New York Post’ reports that Mel Gibson is angry and confused over losing the role.
The ‘Post’ quotes a source close to Mel Gibson as saying: “He doesn’t understand why Mike Tyson, a drug user who turned his life around, was given a chance while Mel was kicked to the curb. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
Glenn Selig, the crisis management PR expert with the firm The Publicity Agency (www.publicityagency.com), says Mel Gibson is in no position to be angry with anyone and that type of posturing only serves to reinforce that he doesn’t understand the scope of why the public is so concerned and Hollywood is so uncomfortable with working with him.
“There may very well be a future for Mel Gibson but not before he repents and really shows he’s sorry or that none of this is true but neither has happened,” says Selig. “He wants the whole tape saga to just go away. It just shows the public, and Hollywood, that he does not comprehend the gravity of the situation. His case is still pending. Yet he wants to move forward.”
The fact that Gibson cannot even get a cameo should be a rude awakening for him and not a time to display any messages of anger.
Selig says unlike Gibson, Tyson did time in prison. Only then he was given a second chance.
“Mel Gibson’s reps who support this absurd position that he has a right to be angry over the firing are making a huge mistake,” says Selig. “Gibson needs to be more understanding of how his situation must look to the outside world and that he can see why some may think ill of him. But that the truth has not yet come out yet.”
Over the summer, Gibson was allegedly recorded during a phone call with Oksana Grigorieva making racist and sexist comments. Gibson has been forbidden by court order from coming near Grigorieva or their daughter due to a domestic violence-related restraining order.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has an active domestic violence investigation against Gibson.
Forensic experts have questioned the validity of the tapes in question.
