Mel Gibson’s career never recovered after anti-Semitic rant

Mel Gibson’s mouth has proved a lethal weapon to his career.

The kids may know him as a washed-up tabloid joke these days, but just 10 years ago, the two-time Oscar winner was a Hollywood powerhouse with a resume of box office hits.

It all came crashing down after he had one (or eight) too many, and got pulled over for a DUI on July 28, 2006, exposing Gibson as an anti-Semite and introducing the phrase “sugar t-ts” to an unsuspecting public.

Thursday marks a decade since Gibson’s drunken rant that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” while being arrested by a Malibu cop — and his career still hasn’t recovered.

It’s doubtful it ever will, even with a starring role in the thriller “Blood Father,” out next month.

And the arrest was just the start of Gibson’s self-inflicted problems:

* In 2009, he divorced his wife of 29 years substituting her for a younger model in Oksana Grigorieva — who bore him a daughter that October.

* That following January, Grigorieva claimed the actor punched her, giving her a black eye and broken teeth. He eventually pled guilty to misdemeanor battery.

* Six months later, Grigorieva released a secretly recorded rant he made against her that included physical threats and racial slurs against blacks.

* In 2012, writer Joe Eszterhas’ teen son released a secret audio recording during a trip to Gibson’s Costa Rican home the previous December. On the recording, Gibson can be heard raving, “I am earning money for a filthy little c-er who takes advantage of me,” apparently referring to Grigorieva.

Even Hollywood has its limits.

Having alienated many women, Jews and blacks, Gibson is not exactly the box office draw he once was. It’s kind of hard to film a “What Women Want 2” if your star has a reputation for hitting the mother of his infant child.

At 60, he’s likely past his expiration date as an action star anyway — unless he does another tour of duty on “The Expendables” franchise.

It says it all, that when a new “Mad Max” movie hit theaters last year, another actor, Tom Hardy, was behind the wheel.

Gibson’s best bet for a future may lie in directing, particularly since he’s shown he’s quite good at it, having won best picture and best director Oscars for “Braveheart.” And his 2004 Jesus biopic, “The Passion of the Christ,” earned $370.7 million at the box office.

“Hacksaw Ridge,” due out in November, the first film he’s directed in 10 years, is already getting early Oscar buzz. The WWII drama’s award season prospects will undoubtedly be helped by not likely having Gibson visible in a single frame.

It’s a shame, because before Gibson acted so publicly like a bigoted misogynist, he was actually a talented actor. All that changed for Mad Max on that stretch of road in Malibu 10 years ago.