Can Mel Gibson Bounce Back?

At LAT, "Gibson scandal could doom his movie career":

Talent agents and studio executives say it will be difficult for Gibson to be hired as an actor or director on a mainstream project. Gibson is heard on tapes threatening former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

As Mel Gibson's legal and publicity problems mount, his prospects for a future in mainstream Hollywood grow dimmer.

Eight minutes of new audio surfaced on Monday capturing Gibson's angry and expletive-laden rant to ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. The recording, which appeared on the website Radar Online, follows an earlier release on the site of a tape in which Gibson uses foul and threatening language toward Grigorieva as well as the N-word. Monday's audio features an increasingly apoplectic Gibson threatening Grigorieva, with whom he's locked in a child custody battle, yelling at her that she needs a "bat to the side of the head" and that he could put her "in a … rose garden" if he wanted to. (Although the audio has not been independently verified by The Times, no one involved in the incident, including representatives from Gibson's camp, has called its authenticity into question.)

Interviews with a number of Hollywood talent agents and studio executives on Monday suggest that as a result of these recordings, Gibson has become anathema in the entertainment business; the insiders see little way Gibson would be hired as either an actor or director on any mainstream film.

On Friday, the news broke that Gibson had been dropped by his agency, William Morris Endeavor, around the time that the first reports of a diatribe against Grigorieva surfaced and as his longtime agent and supporter, Ed Limato, lay on his deathbed, both of which may have been factors in the decision.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department also has confirmed that it is investigating the actor in a domestic abuse case. In the new recording, which will be added to evidence already being reviewed by detectives, the onetime A-lister seems to acknowledge that he hit Grigorieva, the mother of his child, when he responds to her mention of him hitting her by saying, "you … deserved it."

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the investigation would not be affected by Gibson's celebrity. "First of all there was no favoritism last time [referring to the 2006 Malibu incident]. There is no favoritism this time," Whitmore said. "We're just doing our job." The department faced criticism after Gibson's 2006 drunk driving arrest after it was suggested that the actor's anti-Semitic comments be expunged from the arrest report.

BONUS: At Radar Online, "EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: Another Mel Gibson Slur Caught On Tape In Crazed Rage - Listen To It Here." And at Fox News, "Whoopi Goldberg defends Mel Gibson."