Mel's Jump The Shark Moment

What do you call a celebrity personal life equivalent of "Jumping the Shark"? You know, the precise moment in time when a much beloved TV show completely lost its mind. The phrase legendarily evolved from the "Happy Days" episode when The Fonz showed up on water skis.

 He with the magical finger-snap ability to turn lights off and summon girls; He who oozed cool with one vowel –"Ayyyyyy"; He whose image I chose over Donnie & Marie for my iron-on transfer t-shirt. THAT guy, we learned, was afraid of sharks? He faced that fear by jumping over one on water skis– wearing his leather jacket, no less. Ah, the drama. We the viewers sat in presumed suspense wondering if poor Fonz could work out his inner demons there on the lake. Neither I nor anyone else wanted to know The Fonz had demons. Fonzie, please no. I had t-shirts.

Which brings me to Mel Gibson. I prefer to remember the heroic Gibson of "Braveheart"– among my favorite films of all time. I wax nostalgic on the Mel of the "Lethal Weapon" movies with Danny Glover– funny, cool.  All the while, Gibson maintained such a respectable distance from Hollywood in his personal life. Married for decades to the same woman– Robin– a Hollywood outsider, he had seven seemingly law-abiding children, and appeared devoutly spiritual.

Then came the drunk driving arrest three years ago, the anti-semitic tirade, and a few curious movies. "Apocalypto" comes to mind.  The marriage fell apart publicly when Robin filed for divorce earlier this year. Nevertheless, I held out hope. Mel's still a talented, brilliant director, I told myself, personal life aside. 

Enter Oksana Grigorieva. Gibson's new girlfriend: classical chanteuse, stunningly, scarily beautiful, severely younger than he.  Oh, and she's pregnant. New today, her music video from her debut album, which was produced by Gibson. The song is called "Beautiful Heartache", Gibson, the svengali, directed the music video himself.
You can view it here: http://www.oksana.fm

Not to give away the money shot, but when the piano explodes into flames, I nearly cried.
Wherefore Art Thou, "Braveheart"?

Shark Jumped.