Tony Earnshaw: Gibson reveals the ugly truth behind the mask of stardom

Take Mel Gibson. Not content with an apocalyptic roadside rant four years back in which he harangued a cop ("Are you a Jew?") before claiming that "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world", the 54-year-old has apparently given voice to his inner demons in a psychotic eight-minute taped phone call to his 40-year-old Russian ex-lover Oksana Grigorieva.

What's more, enraged Gibson's use of a particularly nasty racial epithet – let's call it the "N" word – got him fired from his agent, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment. Chauvinistic, misogynistic,

anti-Semitic and just plain all-round racist, Gibson is in a tailspin and is running out of friends fast.

One has to wonder how much of Gibson's real-life character has been masked by friends, industry associates, fellow actors and his long-time, devoted agent, Ed Limato, who died on July 3.

And is it any surprise that Gibson was immediately dumped after the latest tape, containing said "N" word, was leaked to the press? Not when the man making the decision was Ari Emmanuel, the former head of Endeavor Talent who, prior to the 2009 merger with William Morris, called for an industry-wide boycott of shamed Gibson following his 2006

verbal rampage.

The knives are out for an actor who seems to be trapped playing Edward Hyde. Whatever happened to the goofy, occasionally urbane, star

who bestrode cinema screens throughout the '80s and '90s?

Gibson says it himself in his profoundly disturbing tirade: "the career is over!" He may well be right. But rabid right-wingers and racists have prospered in Hollywood in the past. Gibson's big mistake was in getting caught.

For a man who hasn't enjoyed a box office hit for a decade, whose fundamentalist approach to Christianity sent average moviegoers fleeing for the hills and who is now being investigated for allegedly knocking out Grigorieva's teeth, it would have made more sense to stay sober and keep his inner demons locked safely away.

Instead he delivers to his enemies (of which one assumes there are many) a perfectly formed self-immolation in the manner of a phone call drenched in bitterness, spite, hate and overt prejudice.

Forget the movies, the performances, the Oscars and the $900 million fortune courtesy of The Passion of the Christ.

What price fame, cosseted stardom and possessing more money than God when you're a pariah?