| Newsweek Home » Entertainment |
 |
True Views, or Just the Booze?
The fallout from Mel Gibson's big mouth—and how alcohol really does affect the brain.
 In Touch Weekly-Reuters Gibson gets friendly with two unidentified women at a Malibu restaurant a few hours before his DUI arrest |
Aug. 1, 2006 - As the hangover wore off, Mel Gibson’s world began moving very, very fast. Since details of his DUI debacle and anti-Semitic comments were revealed late Friday, the Oscar-winning celebrity has issued public apologies, checked himself into rehab and requested a meeting with Jewish leaders. He's been dumped by ABC, who had planned to run his Holocaust mini-series and even the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is being questioned about whether it gave the celebrity special treatment.
The big question, meanwhile: Does Gibson believe what he said, or was it just the booze talking?
Gibson, 50, was arrested in Malibu early Friday for alleged driving drunk—he had a blood alcohol level reported at 0.12, significantly higher than the legal California limit of 0.08. When an officer tried to arrest him, the actor was said to have told him, "F---ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," according to TMZ.com, the entertainment Web site that broke the story.
Yet despite widespread rage over Gibson's comments, Dr. Marc Galanter says alcohol can often cause people to say things they normally wouldn't—and doesn't necessarily mean those statements should be taken at face value. "When people are heavily intoxicated, they often say things that relate to issues that may be on their mind, but don't necessarily reflect their true attitudes as they'd express them when sober," says Galanter, director of the alcohol and drug abuse division at New York University Medical Center. "You end up with a person whose judgment is compromised, who has trouble thinking clearly, and whose memory may be affected."
Alcohol, Galanter explains, affects parts of the top of the brain known as the cerebral cortex, which is made up of inhibitory neurotransmitters that are largely responsible for changes in judgment and memory. When a person is drunk, it's a lack of judgment and inhibition of impulses that leads them to do things they wouldn't normally do. Some can be aggressive , violent or overfriendly, "and if they feel they're being attacked, they may do and say things they don't necessarily mean."
| Rate this story | Low | High |
 | MORE FROM NEWSWEEK ENTERTAINMENT |
 Newsweek Entertainment Section Front |
| Add Newsweek Entertainment headlines to your news reader: |
