Can anyone explain why Jodie is so loyal to Mel?

He is NOT the bio father of her sons, so that easy answer does not fly. I simply don't get it.

• I have no particular insight into the situation, but will only observe that plenty of people don't believe in abandoning friends who are going through a difficult time.

• He *might* be the younger son's donor... Maybe...

  http%3A//www.tv3.ie/entertainment_article.php%3FlocID%3D1.803.810%26article%3D92883

  OP%2C%20rethinking

• I am certain that we all at some point in our lives have remained friends with someone in spite of the fact that everyone else hates them. Friendship is complicated. I have a friend who says a lot of shit that I don't agree with, he knows not to discuss it in front of me and our friendship endures.

• Perhaps she is a real friend and knows him intimately and knows he is mentally ill. He has lived his whole life a loving family man and then became ill and self medicated with alcohol, as many do. Healthy people including movie stars can develop mental illness, going insane. Before the eighties people where put into institutions for actions such as his. He seems to be better now, perhaps medication.

• Surprised by the thoughtful insights. 1,3 and 4 are right. I have a friend that's had more surgeries for serious problems than JFK, and he's wound up becoming a drug abuser. Moreso, he hops from drug to drug to drug. But at his core he's a good person and even though some friends of mine don't like my relationship with him, it's nobody's business but my own. Abandoning friends when they are at their lowest is inhumane, to me. Although when I'm severely wronged I know when to cut all ties. I loathe Mel Gibson, but I admire Jodie for being human before political. Jodie's probably all he's got.

• I want to thank you (all posters thus far) who have responded with uncharacteristicly un-DL-snarky thoughtfulness. Color me shocked.

  OP

• She's extremely damaged and he's extremely damaged. They cling together out of fear at the rest of the world. She also likes boyish prankish types (which explains why she's also such good friends with RDJ, who is also damaged goods).

• She's the Aunt Jemima of homosexuality. And Mel Gibson was ALWAYS a bible-thumping, woman-beating, alcoholic psychopath raised by a white supremacist. He's isn't some poor, lost victim of a sudden mental disorder; he was always a monster, he was just good at hiding it. Those of you who feel compassion for Mel (the celebrity LEAST deserving of it) are really no different from Log Cabiners on my scale of sell-out treachery.

• I would care deeply if I were placed on that scale, r8.

• What r1 said.

• I understand that maybe they have a deep bond and maybe she sees something in him that others do not, but I don't understand it on a practical level. Here's a guy who has been caught repeatedly exposing homophobic, racist and anti-semetic views so how do they all break bread together if that's how he truly feels? I wouldn't want to abandon a friend either, but I wouldn't want that kinda bullshit around my kids.

• Closeted actors often link up with an anti-gay colleagues to cover their sexuality.

• Can anyone explain why the OP is so fucking obsessed with 'Jodie' and how many more fucking threads about this the troll will post? Anyone?

  ..anyone%3F

• What a shame that someone would stand by and up for a friend in trouble. Shame on her for not kicking him to the curb.

• Did I start any of the other Jodie threads? No, I did not. So, stfu r13.

  OP

• Apparently they've just been friends since the movie "Maverick" from 1994. From Vanity Fair: Foster, who first worked with Gibson when they co-starred in Maverick (1994), is articulate, even eloquent on the subject. “I don’t have a lot of friends,” she says. “So it was unusual for me to have met somebody and instantly said, ‘This is somebody I’m going to know for my whole life.’ Once a tree fell outside my house in the middle of the night, which I didn’t notice. In the morning I ran out really fast to get the paper and slammed into the tree. It was like getting hit by a crowbar. I was stumbling around, blood pouring out of my head. And the phone rings. It was Mel. ‘How are you?’ ‘I feel so stupid, but I ran into a tree.’ He literally came in 15 minutes with this big bag of ointments and Tibetan blah-blah. He’s kind. He’s generous. That’s the guy I know.” She adds, “I can’t say I’m proud of the way he’s handled everything, but I feel terrible for him, and for his family, for his struggles.”

  http%3A//www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2011/03/mel-gibson-201103

  Anonymouse

• Danny Glover also stood by Gibson. Does that make him a bad person?

• R17 Mel Gibson is a bad person. The folks that stand by him are not. Or maybe Mel is a good person that does bad things ALWAYS. I cannot stand Mel Gibson but I can't fault anyone who stands by him if he was truly their friend. I'd want my friends to stand by me in tough times.

  Anon

• He's a closet gay himself.

• It's one thing to stand by him, and another thing entirely to expedite his attempts to rehab his image by bringing him to a high-profile event as your guest. That's the part I don't get, and especially when she was (apparently, amid the rambling) planning to make reference to her own orientation that he's so rabidly against.

• He was quite beautiful in Tim and Mad Max.....

• Thank you, R5. I also know someone who had a drug problem. One time, when he was high on heroin, he said the vilest, most homophobic, bigoted, and hurtful things to me. God, I was so angry with him. I had been down this path with him before. He's clean and sober now. He asked my forgiveness for what he said and did. I forgave him, because the person who said and did those things was not the man I knew. It was the drugs. I couldn't walk away from my brother who had severe problems. I admire Jodie Foster for standing by her friend Mel Gibson, more so than I do for her Second Coming Out.

  BonniePrinceCharlie

• Mel had an incredible career in film and at one time was arguably the biggest movie star in the world.He deserves support to rehabilitate. His problem appears to have been alcohol and many of you are no stranger to alcohol problems.

• Mel Gibson doesn't like Jews. Fine, whatever, he can think what he wants. It seems people who actually know him recognize that he is a decent person. I don't understand why someone has to be totally destroyed just because they don't embrace Jews.

• Mel has always been a douche. My boss used to work as a nurse with Mel's wife Robyn in the 70s. She said MG was a mean, vile drunk back then, too.

• I agree with R20. What's the origin of the friendship?

• r16's link explains it well i think.

• To me it's a bro thing.

• [quote]I understand that maybe they have a deep bond and maybe she sees something in him that others do not, but I don't understand it on a practical level. I think this accurately describes all celebrity friendships (sub pronouns).

• If I discovered a "friend" had such a warped, sociopathic, violent, criminal, rage-a-holic, public declarations of homophobia (which I've seen), then I would cut that degenerate asshole out of my life immediately (as I have with many meth addicts). Who in the fuck sticks by a character this rotten? And who needs such an evil, destructive, permanent-poison character in their lives? Have any you you ever seen good food get BETTER when you put it next to moldy food? Of course not, the good food gets moldy too. And you can draw that exact same parallel with that lesbian Aunt Jemima and that bible-thumping woman-beater. Fuck both of them, these evil, bubonic-plague-spreading rats need to die of cancer. That's why I'm TIRED of celebrity-cocksucking whores into whose assholes soooo many queens insert their stupid, empty heads. What the fuck IS IT with gays and their celebrity-fawning-psycohitic-obsessive brainwashing, for fuck's sake?

• I agree with R30 and that's why I have absolutely no respect for Foster, there is no legitimate reason in the world she can have for supporting such a vile monster such as Mel Gibson.

• R30, think I love you. Sure, it was nice she came out and all but she has chosen a career in the industry which demeans our culture. SOTL=crap, misogynist vioence. CONTACT = more alien mythology to disrtact the masses. NELL = Gawd awful. Little Einstein = frau flick. Taxi Driver = her mother allowed her to play a child prostitute--demeaning sexualization of children. She stands by her friend Woody Allen as well. Has she really doen anything of merit, either artistically or socially?

• Yes, because she's a scorpio. They are loyal, radical, tormented - and attracted to damaged souls like their own. Destruction and rebirth govern their lives, cyclically. Hillary Clinton (a scorpio) would never leave Bill, regardless of his many faults. Jodie Foster (a scorpio) would never leave Mel, regardless of his many faults. No-one even remotely familiar with astrology would be surprised about their bond. You can laugh, dismiss, and ridicule the astrological angle all you want; it doesn't make it any less true. Jodie is a texbook scorpio, with an intense need for privacy, and an intense dislike of being told what to do. That includes how to behave when someone acts the way Mel has acted.

  The%20Streep%20troll%20%28tm%29

• r7 is right. I think there is a difference in standing by a friend and totally refusing to acknowledge why people in and out of the industry find him offensive and don't want to work with him. She blamed it on his alcoholism. And of course, the first words to come out of any user's mouth are an anti-Semitic rant. I also wonder about him being closeted. I'm not one of the guys on here who wants/expects everyone in Hollywood to be gay, but I truly wonder, given his upbringing.

• I'm just incredibly happy you're all spelling her name correctly.

  If%20I%20see%20%22Jody%22%20one%20more%20time%2C%20I%27m%20kicking%20a%20baby.

• I'm trying to post a reply to #22, but don't know how to link my reply to #22's post. Can someone explain how to do that please? Anyway, I've always been skeptical of people who claim that alcohol or drugs is the reason for their racist, homophobic and/or sexist rages. I've been high and drunk before and have never said derogatory and offensive things while intoxicated that I would never say or think when sober. In my opinion, all drugs/alcohol do is lower people's inhibitions and break down their filters so that their deep-seated feelings are more freely expressed. Now, if Mel Gibson is mentally ill (which I believe he is), that's a whole different can of worms.

  Anonymous

• Wow, finally some sense from R30 - 32. He was a homophobic piece of shit long before she ever met him. She knew what she was getting all along.

• Mel Gibson seems classically bipolar and perhaps Jodie is too, being a lifelong lesbian and all (very common). This may explain their special bond. But what's up with her admiration for Woody Allen? She's got a thing for sexual predators.

• His sperm didn't take

• What? Jodie is now bipolar? I thought we learned on another thread that Jodie is 50, trim, and not bipolar, and that not many on DL could claim to be that themselves.

• R40, Jodie looks fantastic for a fifty year old woman which is common for bipolar chicks--they do stay youthful unless they are drowning in meds. She seemed very manic in her speech--now, I'm no authority although I have relatives with the illness, and what I saw that night I see in my female cousins. Manic glowing blooper-talk all the while being sexy and attracive. She is a CLASSIC bipolar lesbian if I have ever seen one. She surely has the energy to work out and stay fit, nary a muffin top on that one. She is also high-testosterone, comon for Bipolar women. I'd say their friendship blossomed over an indiscreet dalliance and a few Ablify's.

• No, if she were bipolar she would have a muffin top at the very least.

• Her Daddy was a mean drunk too....it is called "repeating a pattern"

  American%20Psychological%20Association

• r43, I thought her father wasn't in her life? I seem to remember her being raised by her mother and her "aunt", aka her mother's girlfriend, from a young age.

• I have friends who have done truly awful things and I've stood by them. Whether Jodie stands by Mel for similar reasons or because, either in addition or instead, he has been particularly important to her in some private way we may never know about - and how is it we know for sure he isn't the boys's bio father? - we may never know.

• r44...i was kind of joking....I don't think he raised her but wasn't he a drunk too

• They both have a lot of crazy going on and birds of a feather flock together.

• It's a Jodie-Mystery.

• She's going to have that asshole front and center at her tribute and we're supposed to pretend like he's not the monster he is or said the terrible things he did. I'm surprised he didn't get booed by the crowd.

• Not a Mel apologist, but no one has any idea what Jodie has said to him in private regarding his craziness.

• Jodie is such an odd, little juvenile name. It's not something for a grown woman. Parents: Think before you name your kid.

• Jodie is such an odd, little juvenile

• Her given name is Alicia, r51. Not Jodie.

  The%20Streep%20troll%20%28tm%29

• She said that he saved her. Must be something there. Prolly the baby daddy.

• R38 most lesbians are not bi-polar. That's kind of a crazy thing to say.

• She's a cunt. Cunts have an affinity with assholes.

• For fuck's sake. Was it the most eloquent speech of all time? No. But evidence of some kind of serious mental incapacity? Give me a break. Here was the intelligent, complex, nervous, guarded movie star whom she is having to give a high profile speech which is not her idea of fun and having decided to touch on several personal issues which she finds very challenging to do. And I had brought Mel Gibson to that party, I'd be a bit edgy myself. That. Is. All.

• Wasn't the first piece of advice she gave on Sunday night "love people and stay beside them"? Honestly, does anyone just LISTEN anymore? She also mentioned that thing about PRIVACY, remember?

• Perhaps he's a great guy when he's not drunk. And maybe she's trying to save the great guy.

• Because Maverick is the greatest film ever made! It's a masterwork.

  Margot%20Kidder

• [quote]She's going to have that asshole front and center at her tribute and we're supposed to pretend like he's not the monster he is or said the terrible things he did. I'm surprised he didn't get booed by the crowd. That was stupid RDJ's fault. He planned Mel's attendance as a special surprise for Jodie and as a way to help Mel's image along not thinking about how uncomfortable it might be. I really don't think she's great friends with RDJ, she's mainly good friends with his wife who produced The Brave One for her. Of course the Globes wanted a big name as a presenter so they asked him.

• r61, you sound like you know these people. Thanks for the dish, but, really -- they could have had ANY big star (and there are quite a few BIGGER than RDJ) do it -- as I am sure most would have said yes. She actually *likes* RDJ as a close friend, it would seem.

• She's friends with anyone who can stand her.

• Maybe she's racist and anti-semitic. You never know.

• I'm with the previous poster who said the alcohol (and drugs, don't kid yourselves) just lowered Gibson's inhibitions and allowed his real personality to come out. I, too, have had my share of drunken and drugged up evenings and I have never spewed racist, homophobic, anti-semitic slurs. Never. I'm willing to bet that most of us haven't. It's who Gibson really is and Foster has decided to accept that. I wouldn't accept it in a friend and I think it's really bizarre that Foster does. Of course now that she's shown us all the extent of her insecurity, which is surprisingly massive, I suppose she can't help herself.

• Isn't Mel the father of her kids?

• No R66. Mel himself denied it long ago. Most people think the dad was Randy Stone, her gay bff and founder of the Trevor Project. Randy was fairly involved with the kids until he died. Plus there was some debacle when he went on Paternity Leave from Fox right after Jodie's first son was born. He ended up being fired I think. Sadly he passed away a few years ago.

• I don't think Foster has a lot of friends in Hollywood. She's a pro and that's why she gets work, though no one wants to cast her as anything but a tough woman fighting some bad guys. She got to be in Panic Room, because Kidman dropped out last minute. The Brave One was Bullock's project for the longest time. Foster admitted that her agent talked her into doing the plane film. The Beaver was a disaster. And even in that case she came on after so many other directors dropped out. Honestly, I believe that's what she and Gibson have in common: they see themselves as 'different' than the rest of Hollywood. The truth is, they're just like anyone else. At least Gibson is a very good director.