Los Angeles: Actor and director Mel Gibson was officially charged with drunken driving after being arrested last week for speeding on the Pacific Coast Highway near his swank Malibu estate.
However, Gibson's apology on Tuesday for an anti-Semitic rant after his drunken driving arrest came several days too late, celebrity crisis management experts said.
It was the star's first acknowledgment that he spewed anti-Jewish slurs at Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff James Mee early on Friday — a tirade that could threaten his career and the December release of his film Apocalypto, in which he and Disney invested tens of millions of dollars.
"In the first 24 hours, people start forming opinions," said Richard Levick, whose Washington firm represents several celebrity clients.
"He has constantly been behind the story and needs to get out front. What he's done through actions is turned perception into reality. People presume he is anti-Semitic," Levick added.
The cloud of anti-Semitism has followed Gibson since the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which many Jews felt unfairly portrayed Jews' role in the death of Jesus.
The issue intensified after interviews with Gibson's father, who called the Holocaust mostly "fiction."
Levick said that while the film became a blockbuster despite the controversy — or because of it — this is Gibson's last chance to prove he isn't a bigot.
"Mel Gibson has a very high trust bank with audiences," Levick said. "And that is in jeopardy. This is at a tipping point right now."
InTouch Weekly editor Tom O'Neil told CNN on Tuesday that, if there are any other skeletons in Gibson's past, they're now likely to be revealed.
"This guy's got an army of tabloid reporters on his neck," O'Neil said. "And he has a dark side that we're just seeing here. We're going to see a lot more things about his life and — you know, somebody who has held himself up to such a pious standard has further to fall."
O'Neil also observed that, though Gibson may earn forgiveness from fans, obtaining it from his Hollywood colleagues will be more difficult.
"I talked to a top studio executive on Wednesday who will have to go nameless who said we don't care if he opens an orphanage in Israel on his knees, we're not forgiving this guy," O'Neil said.
However, in a sign that the Gibson camp gained some ground on Tuesday, several Jewish leaders offered reserved praise for Gibson's apology. They said it was an improvement over a statement Gibson issued Saturday that only vaguely referred to "despicable" remarks.
Gibson also said he had begun a recovery program and said he planned to meet with Jewish leaders "to discern the appropriate path for healing."
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