Is Mel Gibson really any more screwed up than the rest of Hollywood?

You can’t turn on the news this week without seeing Mel Gibson’s meltdown. In case you’ve been in a media black out, Mel Gibson was pulled over for drunk driving. He became combative during his arrest and started making anti-Semitic rants, saying Jews are responsible for all of the world’s wars and that he hates Jews and then he accuses the arresting officer of being a Jew. Now Gibson is in a world of legal trouble and has a PR nightmare on his hand. The man who brought us the brutal , commercially successful “Passion of the Christ” is outed as a bigot.

So Mel Gibson is a bigot.

Ouch.

Is he any worse than any of the other Hollywood weird-o’s?

No.

Let’s take a look at some other celebrity meltdowns.

Tom Cruise went on international television to tell people that psychiatrists are evil and that post-partum depression is a made-up phenomenon to get women to take anti-depressants… the world’s most evil medication. Of course, Tom Cruise’s other recent bizarre behavior includes his couch-jumping incident on Oprah, a whirlwind romance of a much younger woman who, by some accounts walks around in a strange brain-washed daze and his manic appearances at movie premiers where he jumps into crowds of adoring well-wishers.

Despite the Tom Cruise meltdown, millions of people still went to see his latest movie Mission Impossible:3.

Britney Spears’ life has been one meltdown after another. Her 56-hour-lonjg Vegas wedding to a childhood friend, her quick romance then surprise wedding to current husband Kevin Federline, her affinity for going barefoot in gas station bathrooms, declaring that it’s okay for her to hold her infant son on her lap while she’s driving because “she’s country” Brit has been a bit of a mess for the last… three or four years.

Britney Spears is still selling albums and, if she can get her act together, is setting herself up for the greatest pop-comeback in history.

Let’s not forget the Oscar-night performance given by Angelina Jolie, the world’s most beloved celebrity woman (right now). A few years ago she walked the red carpet, not with Brad Pitt, but with her brother. The world watched in horror as she and her brother exchanged passionate kisses multiple times while declaring their love for each other.

Angelina Jolie is now a UN Ambassador, making a real difference in the world, adopting orphans and generally making the world a better place. Her movies will never struggle at the box office. Despite the fact she tongue-kissed her brother. I mean…. ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Celebrities aren’t politicians, they’re not role models, they’re not heroes, they’re just people who happen to be better looking than the rest of us so they’re in movies and on TV and on our radios. They’re not smarter than us. They don’t know more about how the world works. They live in a strange world where money is no object and their every whim is catered to. When they go off the deep end, it becomes a public event because there’s nothing the public loves more than watching a falling star.

Celebrity analysts who pollute the air-waves with their opinions about Mel Gibson’s future love to say his career is over. ABC has already dropped Gibson from a future project about the Holocaust. Gibson has issued statements asking for forgiveness and healing. The fact is, Mel Gibson is going to be just fine. This will blow over. He will make grand gestures to prove that he is not, in fact, a bigot. He will make a movie that puts him back in the good favor of Hollywood, the Jewish community and celebrity watchers, who will no doubt have already moved on to analyze another celebrity meltdown.