Mel Gibson steps out with his girlfriend: Have we forgiven him yet?

Some two weeks after we learned that Mel Gibson’s wife of 29 years, Robyn Moore, was filing for divorce, the former Sexiest Man Alive showed up last night at a special Los Angeles screening of Wolverine with his Russian girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. The couple’s rare public appearance may have come a short time after one of the world’s biggest stars got embroiled in one of the world’s biggest divorces, but as his rep explained to People of the smiley, happy couple, “Mel has been single for almost three years and it’s nice to see him getting out and enjoying himself.” Then why am I feeling so catty about it?

Gibson’s dug a pretty deep PR hole for himself, not only by acting like a drunken anti-semite during the (alleged) “sugartits” tirade, but also by jamming his religious values down our throat with a frightening, flesh-slashing fury. I think that’s why I’m feeling unfairly critical of Gibson, 53, for turning to the younger Grigorieva, 39, now that he is engaged in the very un-Catholic act of divorce. Espousing your specific personal beliefs as the only way to save your soul from whatever hell might await the non-believers (he once said even his Episcopalian wife Moore, the mother of his children, would be excluded from salvation) has a way of coming home to roost when you live your life, and all its ups and downs, in public. And yes, I am aware that my response is partly just a shot of schadendfreude now that the rich, beautiful, successful, previously likable actor is being taken down a peg.

But maybe we’ve hit the breaking point and can finally forgive Gibson and grant that he has every right to humbly walk out in public with his girlfriend and be left alone to his private life. While I’m not all that stoked to see him play a cop in the crime thriller Edge of Darkness later this year (his first major acting role since 2002’s Signs), I think I could probably be into it if he signed onto an indie flick where he plays a creepy, middle-aged weirdo and flaunts the fact that he’s no longer the goofy Hollywood star from Lethal Weapon. Sadly, I dunno if his ego, or his church, would ever allow it, but that could be a better route for him moving forward than playing a cop or attempting to pull a Stallone and ressurect the Mad Max franchise.

What do you think PopWatchers? Have we forgiven Gibson for the drunken tirade? Are we privately taking some pleasure in watching him face a bit of judgment himself? What kind of role would make you want to see Gibson on screen?