Despite a torrent of adverse publicity over his DUI arrest and anti-Semitic remarks, nearly half of Americans still have a favorable opinion of Mel Gibson, a new Fox poll shows.
Moreover, they say his reported behavior during his arrest won't make a difference when they’re deciding whether to see his movies.
According to a national telephone poll of 900 registered voters conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corporation for FOX News from Aug. 8 to Aug. 9, the survey found that only 6 percent of Americans say they "definitely" will not go to see Gibson’s movies in the future. Another 10 percent say they "probably" won’t go, while eight out of 10 people say his arrest and negative comments about Jewish people will not make a difference to them.
Other poll results:
88 percent of the men polled are slightly more likely than women (77 percent), and Republicans (83 percent) are a bit more likely than Democrats (75 percent), to say the incident will not make a difference in their decision to see Gibson’s movies.
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People living in the Northeast (10 percent) are three times as likely as those in the West (3 percent) to say they "definitely" won’t go to his movies in the future.
Half of Americans say the worst part of the whole episode was that Gibson was driving while drunk, mirroring the concern expressed by those responding to a NewsMax.com poll, 16 percent say it was that he made anti-Semitic comments and 3 percent that he was belligerent with the police officers who stopped him. One in five people (22 percent) say all aspects of the incident were equally bad.
Fully 48 percent of the people polled said they view Gibson favorably while only 28 percent view the actor unfavorably.28 percent. The results put s him ahead of President Bush (39 percent favorable, 56 percent unfavorable) and behind British Prime Minister Tony Blair (56 percent favorable, 17 percent unfavorable).
Notes Fox, despite the amount of news coverage the arrest attracted, most people say they aren’t paying that much attention to the story while a bare 12 percent say they are following it "very closely,"and 30 percent "somewhat" closely, 57 percent say they are "not very" or "not at all" closely following the story.
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