You can come out now, Mel

"My client doesn't have to answer that question"

After shooting himself in the foot to such an impressive degree that he made a hole in the ground so deep he could give us updates on the state of the earth's inner core, Mel Gibson’s spectacular arseholism seemingly left his Hollywood career beyond rescue. Not only was he kicked off The Hangover 2 after the cast and crew rebelled, the fallout from his domestic holyfuckingshitballs activities also caused another of his films, The Beaver, to be put on the shelf, despite it being primed for good things. A heartstring guitar solo of a drama, it tells of a troubled toy executive who deals with depression by using a puppet to communicate * dog shown a trick head tilt *

While the likes of Whoopi Goldberg came out in support of the man who (insert 'alleged' here to cover ass, just in case, even though it's in the public domain) attacked his girlfriend and told her "if you get raped by n****rs it'll be your own fault", it seems another, more unlikely Hollywood character has helped kickstart Gibson’s rehabilitation: Charlie Sheen. Apparently, Hollywood is only actually able to process one transgressive nutjob at a time, so Sheen’s David-Icke-gone-Keith-Richard pantomime routine has managed to draw some of the heat from Mel – and in a nicely timed moment of synchronicity, it has meant that The Beaver was able to have its premiere this week at SXSW without the spectre of Gibson's spectacular flair for wrongness hanging over it to any uncomfortable degree.

Perhaps understandly, the studio will have been loathe to lose the money it invested in the film, and it would have seen the light of day eventually, and it’s long been clear that Hollywood is no arbiter of morality - witness Whoopi Goldberg (hey, Hollywood douchebags! Whoopi has your back!) remarkably sticking up for Roman Polanski by saying that statutory rape of an underage girl 'isn't rape-rape' - but what it does is define and quantify that morality and show how brazenly they're prepared to publicly validate that fact when it commences the rehabilitation of Gibson – not for big blockbuster bucks that would be hard for anyone to resist, but for the comparative loose change that a low-budget offbeat flick like The Beaver would bring in. Clearly, everyone has a right to make a living, and it's for the legal system to decide how people atone, but it's the clear exposure of the fact that decency is inversely proportional to box office clout is a tad, you know, rank. It all feels like a twisted update on the Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David was discussing how soon after a funeral you can dump someone.

So it's proved. The post-SXSW buzz on The Beaver is solid, veering on the glowing: 'Can Mel Gibson win an Oscar for The Beaver?' screamed a poll on The LA Times. "It doesn't make you forget all the stupid stuff he said and did," film-maker Sara Terry told The Wrap after the SXSW screening. "But the people here don't care, because that stuff doesn't take away from the fact that it's an amazing performance."

Maybe that's where OJ went wrong, he should've been involved in that tragic incident straight after Naked Gun, then he'd have kept his seat at the top table.