If the reported abusive voicemails to his former partner are true, then the Hollywood star has seriously dented his credibility as a suitable parent, let alone as a likeable human being!

Mel Gibson has been grappling with anger management issues & an alcohol problem for years. Once highly acclaimed as an actor, director, producer & screenwriter, it is only relatively recently that fifty four year old Gibson made a comeback in Edge of Darkness, with his first leading role in eight years in. It was meant to revive his waning career, & when the film was released in January his performance as homicide detective Thomas Craven was highly acclaimed.

Now, following the alleged racist & sexist voicemails to his former partner - Russian pianist Oksana Grigorieva – doubts hang over the viability of that career, with outraged civil rights groups calling for a boycott of his career, & the world at large appalled by the revelations.

Gibson & Grigorieva have a daughter together – eight month old Lucia - & it is the acrimonious custody battle surrounding her that is at the centre of the recent allegations. In April it was announced that the couple had split up. Grigorieva has since claimed that Gibson had physically assaulted her & filed for a restraining order against him. Gibson responded by filing for a restraining order forbidding her to speak publicly about the case.

The recording that produced the recent revelations is believed to have been lodged with an LA court as part of the dispute. Radar online - who broke the story – claim to have heard the thirty minute tape, but no other media source has heard it or been able to confirm its authenticity.

Among the most controversial of the abusive verbal assaults reportedly hurled at his ex partner, Gibson is alleged to have said, “You look like a fucking pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of niggers, it will be your fault.”  The gossip site also alleges that he said, “I am going to come and burn the fucking house down… but you will blow me first.”

The vicious comments have produced revulsion among those who have read them. Making reference to these & previous anti-Semetic insults at the time of Gibson’s arrest for drunk driving, the Reverend Jesse Jackson had this to say: “Mel Gibson’s outburst demonstrates once again that we are far from a society that is ‘beyond race and racism.’ His penchants for anti-Semitic and racist diatribes reveal the actor’s fundamental character flaw. He needs help…”

Gloria Allred – the American Lawyer famous for taking on high profile cases – had this to say in an open letter to Gibson: “As an attorney who has represented many sexual assault victims and as a woman who is a survivor of rape myself, I want you to know how deeply offensive, appalling and harmful your reported statements are.”