MEL GIBSON....WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO FORMERLY BANKABLE MOVIE STARS

Mel Gibson has done some great movies over the years. Too bad his claim to fame these days is a series of rambling phone calls to his Russian girlfriend.

Late night drunken phone calls to girlfriends have never been a great idea for guys, but we are usually misguided by the plucky notion that chicks really dig drunk dialing.

They don't, but at least most of us are smart enough to turn on what passes for our personal charm at 3am.

Mel Gibson had a different game plan with his phone calls.

Unfortunately for Mel, his Russian princess taped his calls. Unfortunately for us, she released her Best of Mel Gibson soundtrack to the general public. Now the rest of us know that Mel lacks a few social graces. Well maybe more than a few-if you count rambling, crazed physical threats to the poor girl.

I'll give Mel this much: the man has stamina. He just got more unhinged as the conversation progressed (or regressed) into deeper levels of crazy. One can only hope that Mel was totally gunned when he made these calls. If he wasn't, then the man needs a jacket with the ultra-long sleeves that hook in the back. Being s***t- faced is definitely not an excuse, but it is a starting point for Mad Mel.

So, if Mel needs to dry out, he will at least have an opportunity to avoid future embarrassment with these kinds of psycho-calls. Otherwise we will begin to believe that his crazy sequences in 'Lethal Weapon' were not a terribly big reach for him as an actor. Then we would have to also conclude that the man is a complete maniac and probably not as good an actor as we thought in the first place.

You make the call.