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You know how it was both alarming and sort of impressive, in a scary way, when Mel Gibson simply accepted responsibility for his actions the other night -- including the anti-Semitic words -- rather than making excuses, or insisting that his statements didn't represent his true beliefs? Well, scratch that. Gibson statement #2 has arrived, and it's all about how he not only doesn't hate Jews ("Hatred of any kind goes against [his] faith," don't forget), but would in fact like to "meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom [he] can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing." Oh, and he wants that community "to help [him] on [his] journey through recovery," presumably both AA and the kind without 12 steps.

And also, just in case you thought this was about Mel Gibson spewing Anti-Semitic beliefs, it's really "... about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. It's about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad." I don't know about you, but I feel much better about the whole thing now.

In a shockingly normal-person decision by a celeb in trouble, Mel Gibson has come out with a statement about his DUI in which he takes full responsibility for his behavior. You can find the full text of the statement online, but to summarize, Gibson doesn't dispute anything in the report we told you about this morning. Instead, he describes his behavior at the time of arrest as "completely out of control," and goes on (referring primarily, one assumes, to his anti-Semitic words) to say: "[I] said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said." He also apologizes to the deputies with whom he was involved during the arrest, and praises them several times for the jobs they do, and were doing last night.

So, there it is. I'm really, really impressed that he's put out a statement simply accepting that he was wrong -- you don't see that much 'round Hollywood way, at least not from names as big as Gibson's. I'm still troubled, however, by his drunken anti-Semitism. From some of the comments on the previous post, it sounds like some of you accept that sort of thing as being par for the course when people get drunk. So I'm curious: Do you honestly think that, under the influence of alcohol, people with no prejudicial beliefs can suddenly become racist, or anti-Semitic, or anti-Muslim, or anti-whatever? Because I've never known anyone to whom that happens (lucky for me, I guess) -- what are your experiences like?

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