Americans are a forgiving people, at least when it comes to movie stars. So we’ve learned in the aftermath of Mel Gibson’s recent drinking/ driving/ anti-Semitizing episode. In a CNN poll (summarized by PollingReport.com), just 7 percent of adults said they’ve ceased to be fans of Gibson due to this incident, while 58 percent remain fans. (Most of the rest weren’t fans in the first place.) Meanwhile, a Rasmussen Reports survey finds 52 percent of adults saying they regard Gibson’s apologies as “sincere”—nearly double the 27 percent who view them as insincere. Just 24 percent said the whole incident has affected their opinion of Gibson (for the worse, one would hope). And he retains a favorability rating that most politicians could only dream of: 56 percent of respondents view him favorably, vs. 28 percent unfavorably. By way of comparison, a Rasmussen poll earlier in the summer found lower favorable votes for the likes of Jennifer Aniston (53 percent), Vince Vaughn (41 percent) and Tom Cruise (32 percent). The favorable tally was lower still for America’s Hardest-Working Heiress, Paris Hilton (13 percent), demonstrating anew that life is unfair. 

—Posted by Mark Dolliver