Kirk Douglas: "Mel's in a Mess"

To put it in movie terms, Spartacus has weighed in on the wreckage wrought by the Road Warrior.

Kirk Douglas took to Daily Variety's Website Thursday night, writing a guest column on the Mel Gibson debacle.

A devout Jew, Douglas, 89, says that while he found The Passion of the Christ to be anti-Semitic when it was released in 2004, he didn't believe Gibson was personally.

"I don't find Mel Gibson anti-Semitic," Douglas said, citing a passage in his new nonfiction book Let's Face It. "He worked with Jews and has many Jewish friends."

But since Gibson's well documented post-DUI arrest outburst, in which he ranted about "f--king Jews" being "responsible for all the wars in the world," Douglas said he had a change of heart.

"There is a Talmudic saying: 'When wine comes in, truth goes out.' I believe that," the cleft-chinned icon wrote. "Within the deep recesses of his mind, there apparently lies a cancerous sore of hatred for the Jews."

Douglas also took issue with Gibson's public mea culpas. "Mel's first apology was too contrite and seemingly not remorseful. His second was an afterthought--oh yes, about those Jews."

Gibson, entered an "ongoing program of recovery" for alcoholism, has insisted he's not a bigot and has vowed to reach out to Jewish leaders for help. But Douglas suggested a different tact:

"He is a Catholic and appears to need some spiritual guidance. Perhaps he should first talk to one of his own faith. Maybe Cardinal Roger Mahony could be a great help,

"This is a serious problem that Mel has to face," Douglas continued. "Whether it is about self-hate, or hatred of others--let's face it--Mel is in a mess."

Douglas is the latest celebrity to offer his take on the Gibson crisis. While some in the industry, including super agent Ari Emanuel, Sony Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal and comic Rob Schneider, have bashed the erstwhile Lethal Weapon for his anti-Semitic views, others have struck a more compassionate tone. Among the latter group: his Maverick costar Jodie Foster, Patrick Swayze, and most recently, Signs director M. Night Shyamalan, who spoke highly of Gibson during the London premiere of The Lady in the Water.

"He's very kind to everyone around him, he has never treated anyone badly," the filmmaker said, per World Entertainment News Network. "Who he is will always come out and he's an aspiring, sweet guy, so eventually he'll overcome all this."

Also coming to Gibson's defense is one of the religious right's most prominent leaders, Focus on the Family ministry founder James Dobson.

On Thursday, Dobson released a statement of support for the 50-year-old actor-director and suggested that it was time for everybody to move on.

"We certainly do not condone that racially insensitive behavior," Dobson said, "[But] Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest. Mel has also indicated his willingness to seek help to overcome his alcoholism, and has asked the Jewish community for forgiveness. What more can he do?"

Dobson also sought to separate Gibson's personal ordeal from what his group considers to be the star's greatest screen accomplishment--The Passion of the Christ.

"Our endorsement of it stands as originally stated. We did not believe it was anti-Semitic in 2004, and our views have not changed," Dobson said.

But while Dobson, and no doubt Gibson himself, want people to let it go, the online masses still want to get their licks in.

In addition to a widely circulated South Park episode titled "Mel Gibson Is...Crazy," dozens of amateur video spoofs have hit the Web via video-sharing sites such as YouTube, iFilm, and Google Video.

Several purport to be the unreleased arrest tape. One features a Gibson stand-in (actually former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino in Braveheart-style face paint) cracking Jewish jokes and interspersing lines from Gibson's filmography, while another, produced by the Laugh Factory comedy club, has Gibson blaming Jews for inventing alcohol, inventing his car and being responsible for the heat wave.

Another Laugh Factory-produced clip, titled Casting for the New Untitled Mel Gibson Project, features two casting directors demanding that the auditioner, Avi Steinberg, act "more Jewish" if he wants a part in the new Gibson movie--in which the Jews control the world. Explains one of the casting directors: "It's a romantic comedy."