If Mel Gibson wants to, he can come back from this scandal.

He and his camp haven’t responded to the drip-drip, drip-drip of tapes containing angry, racist and misogynistic rants directed at his ex-girlfriend and mother of one of his children, Oksana Grigorieva. (To be clear, there’s no confirmation that the man on these recordings is Gibson. Nor has it been determined if they were edited.)

But people are already proclaiming that his career is over. If it is him on these tapes and the investigation into violence against Grigorieva goes anywhere, it’s easy to see why people would say that. Put the recordings alongside the anti-Semitic comments he made during his 2006 drunk driving arrest, and it doesn’t take a PR expert to doubt the likelihood of a Lethal Weapon 5 or anything else from Gibson.

Nothing is impossible, though. A public figure, particularly a Hollywood celebrity, can do a lot of negative things, but people will still admire and work with them. So, I think Gibson can have a career after all this. In fact, I’m pretty sure he will. It’s just a question of how he’ll go about it.

Apologies mean a lot, especially to the public. If Gibson wants not only to work, but have the adoration of fans and have people see that work, he’s going to have to have a mea culpa moment: Say he’s sorry and get help for the anger. If he suffers from bi-polar disorder, get help for that too.

Then, he must turn his life around. He’ll probably have to reach out people in the black, Hispanic and Jewish communities. I could see him appearing on Oprah to talk about the racist language and the verbal and alleged physical abuse toward Grigorieva. He could even do a film about one or all of these issues. These recordings will probably always haunt him and his career, but time and action can heal many wounds.

Another option is to do nothing. Gibson can independently produce and distribute his films outside the major studio system in Hollywood. Don’t think people would work with him? Look at Roman Polanski. He gave a 13-year-old girl champagne mixed with part of a quaalude and then forced himself on her. Polanski pled guilty to having unlawful sex with the girl, but fled the U.S. in 1978 before he could be sentenced. So, what does the Hollywood community do? They continue to work with him. Hollywood also honored him with one of it’s highest honors: He won an Academy Award for best director in 2003 for The Pianist.

Gibson hasn’t done anything like Polanski, but it shows what Hollywood and the public will let slide. So, Gibson has a choice. He could lay low for a while, wait for the next few celebrity scandals to come around and then slowly reappear in the spotlight with carefully chosen work and parts. As long as his anger issues don’t get in the way of his work (outbursts on movie sets, etc.), he could just wait it out. His other option is to apologize, get help, make amends and then re-emerge as a re-invented person. The second option would obviously be better for him personally. Exorcising whatever demons he has would give him a better quality of life. But, it is his life and career.

Mel, the choice is yours.

See also:
Forgive And Forget