Joy Behar's Coverage of Mel and Oksana on Her Talk Show

Comedienne, Joy Behar, has been covering the Mel Gibson story almost as much as RadarOnline on her HLN talk show. Joy has spoken with gossip columnists, attorneys, comedians, singers, actors, domestic abuse survivors and, of course, psychologists.

Beginning back on July 13th, Jeff Gardere (clinical psychologist and host of VH1's "Dad Camp") told Joy: "... He`s having a meltdown and he even starts laughing and acting like a child. He`s primal. He almost starts barking at some point. He`s completely, completely lost it, whoever this person may be." Debra Opri, family law attorney said: "Well, this batterer, if it is authenticated to be Mel`s voice, which at this point in time we have to assume it is, he`s looking at two to four years if he`s convicted of a felony. Terrorist threats, domestic violence, he is a danger to her and those immediate family members. That`s in the Code section. And he gets no visitation."

Joy wanted to know why Hollywood will not comment on Mel's rants and racial slurs. Roy Sekoff (founding Editor of Huffington Post.com) speculated that Hollywood didn't want to "close the door completely." Manager and producer, Howard Lapides ("Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew") agreed: " It`s a town that is run by money and if there looks like there could be money, look out, we`re going to go there and try to reap it. But it`s a shame. Somebody that has a public persona and then does things that are pretty well documented -- I mean, we don`t know, was that really him on the tape with his girlfriend? I don`t know." Marvet Britto of the Britto Agency (Public Relations and Brand Strategy) offered the opinion that "it`s also a town where there are skeletons in many people`s closets. So, no one wants to open that door so that they could ever open up their own life for criticism, similar criticism."

On another show, Tony Potts (weekend co-host for Access Hollywood) said that Mel's diatribes scare him: " I mean it`s just demonic. It`s incredible. I don`t think it`s for effect at all. I think he`s clearly out of his mind, in some sense of a rage. When you get into a rage, you cannot account for what you`re doing. It`s horrific." Joy also talked about Oksana Grigorieva getting death threats and wanted to know why anyone would be on Mel's side. Nicole Laporte (reporter for "The Daily Beast" and author) said: "Well ... I think you can`t discount crazy fans or just crazy about him fans. ... there was a poll yesterday that said having listened to these tapes and become aware of Mel in this rage, would you still go see a Mel Gibson movie? And 50 percent of the people who answered the poll said they would. So I think there are still a lot of people who refuse to see this side of Mel and still think of him as the hunky heartthrob from "Lethal Weapon".

Domestic violence survivors, Mary Murphy (guest judge on "So You Think You Can Dance") and Beth Chapman (co-star on "Dog The Bounty Hunter") both talked about how women try to salvage abusive relationships but shouldn't. Beth Chapman blamed these problems on substance abuse: " whether it be alcohol or cocaine or methamphetamine or whatever." but victim right's attorney, Gloria Allred, pointed out that men who don't abuse substances can be abusers and said: ".. the men to be most careful about, frankly, are the male chauvinists."

When reports of doctored tapes began to surface, Joy had David Perel, executive vice president and creator of RadarOnline.com on. He affirmed that Oksana did not give RadarOnline the tapes and also said they didn't pay " a penny" for them." Joy wanted to know why they were posting the tapes "piecemeal." Perel said " Frankly, it`s just too much material to put up on the site at one time. And by spreading it out, you do get to, you know, it`s what you do on the Internet. You spread it out. And what you get is to listen to every piece, hear it, talk about it, see what`s going on, then the next piece becomes the next theme." He also said " RadarOnline hasn`t edited the tapes or altered them in any way."

Later, Pastor Ted Haggard (founder of St. James Church), Stephen Baldwin (actor, radio host, author) and Rebecca Dana (senior correspondent for "The Daily Beast") came on to discuss why Christians have not come to Mel's defense in the same way they did over his DUI arrest. Rebecca Dana talked about how James Dobson, Pat Robertson and other leaders on the Christian right came out to support "The Passion of Christ," and to defend Mel Gibson after making anti-Semitic slurs in 2006. "... arguably there`s something more indefensible about spousal abuse and racism and other kinds of xenophobia than anti-Semitism, but at least for right now, Mel is far too much of a hot potato for them to feel any sort of allegiance to him," Dana said.

Stephen Baldwin took the position that people who are against Mel are "people who just -- they'd like to see him fall ..." Stephen felt that it was anti-Christian to turn on Mel and things got a little heated when he said "... here we are clearly in the court of Joy Behar and he`s guilty before proven innocent. He`s guilty in your mind. And you got this gal from the Beast and you guys -- you`re going -- Joy, you`re going to spin it the way you want." He then asked Joy whey she and " this woman from 'The Beast' hate Christians." Joy said "This guy, this guy rants against gays, Jews, blacks and women. And I`m the one you take on as a bad Christian? As someone who hates Christians? What`s up with you, Stephen? Come on. That`s crazy talk." Baldwin apologized but he said that he felt people needed to be loving and forgiving toward Mel and " personally I think this whole thing is a setup on behalf of this chick Oksana."'

Throughout her continuing coverage, Joy also talked with actress, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, comedian Kathy Griffin, actor Larry Hagman (who really didn't know anything about it), and just about anyone else who showed up. She said Mel Gibson must be "fuming" and "seething" over her daily coverage but, she added, "too bad about him." Joy even asked President Obama on his appearance on "The View" on Thursday, July 28th, although the President declined to comment. Joy continued on Friday, July 30th, relaying the news about Leonardo DiCaprio quitting the Viking movie project with Mel.

TMZ, in the meantime, reported that Mel Gibson was spotted out in public earlier this week for the second time since he went "into hiding," both RadarOnline.com and TMZ had footage of an interview with Oksana outside a grocery story which she said she felt that Mel was "trivializing domestic violence." Weirder still, reports have also surfaced that Oksana may be appearing on "Dancing with the Stars."

Source: The Joy Behar Show
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