When you say the name Mel Gibson, a lot of things come to mind. "Mad Max" Rockatansky. Lethal Weapon's Martin Riggs. People's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1985. An Academy Award-winning Director for Braveheart in 1996. Forbes' "World's Most Powerful Celebrity" for 2004.
Of course, there are some other things that folks might also associate with Mel Gibson. Things like sexism, homophobia, and anti-semitism. Not to mention an almost unnatural love of the Three Stooges.
Still, with everything that's come and gone over the course of Mel Gibson's career and life in the public eye, there did seem to be one area that was safe from Mel-dom, and that was music. At least until now.
Today, Mel Gibson's new (and pregnant) girlfriend, a Russian-born pianist and composer named Oksana Grigorieva--heretofore famous mainly for being a past paramour of James Bond star Timothy Dalton--releases a new single entitled "Say My Name," which features lyrics co-authored by none other than Mel Gibson.
Here are some choice excerpts:
"I got no way back home/ And every time my heart beats, it's one less that remains...The future contrives to draw me in its wake/ I'm not afraid of leaving, if I know why and when/ I'll have to walk a few more miles before you say my name again/ My name again."
Did we mention that Grigorieva records for a new label called Icon Records, owned by none other than Mel Gibson?
Now, whether or not you like Mel's babymama's "Say My Name" is, as they say, in the ear of the beholder. (You can listen to it at www.oksana.fm.) The title may well be a bit of an in-joke: After all, when news broke in April of Mel's divorce to his wife of almost 30 years, Robyn Gibson, and a new woman named Oksana entering the picture, Grigorieva was so unknown three other Russian musical beauties all named Oksana showed up in the tabloids as Mel's new flame before the correct one was properly identified.
In any event, it is nice to know that Gibson is branching out--and, perhaps in response to the fact that over recent years he's shown a proclivity for communicating in such far-flung languages as Latin, Aramaic (The Passion Of The Christ) and Yucatec Mayan (Apocalypto), he's doing it in English for a change.
I know, I know--and Nyuk Nyuk to you, too.