I'm glad Hitchens pointed out that, among his many other sins, Gibson is a bad actor. The quintessential Gibson performance, it seems to me, is the Lethal Weapon movies, where it looks like he's on a combination of Red Bull and speed. Granted, that's supposed to be his character, but I can't think of a movie after Gallipoli where he emanates anything approaching quiet. His jumpiness calls attention to itself, and thus I suppose passes for characterization, but I just think it's bad acting.

It's also likely related to his (self-admitted) addictive personality. Having spent some time with one of the several young Kennedys who have gotten in trouble with drugs, I noted a distinct similarity with the Gibson character -- an almost total inability to be at rest, at peace. One of Maureen Dowd's better (and I believe notorious) columns described how Bush Sr. played golf: constantly "playing through" other foursomes in a restless drive to get through to ... the end. (Same guy who famously checked his watch while in the middle of a televised debate.)

And then there's his son.....

What does all this mean? Not much perhaps, except to wonder whether this restlessness -- which seems so quintessentially American (I know, Gibson is an Aussie) -- has something to do with the current rather scary state of the world (global warming included).