SOME CELEBS FORGIVEN DESPITE SCANDAL, SOME AREN'T.

Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer

Short of child molestation and murder, it seems that celebrities can get away with all sorts of bad behavior these days.

A quartet of scandal-plagued stars is putting this to the test at a time when all have new projects either already out or about to be released.

Mel Gibson, whose film ``Apocalypto'' hits screens on Dec. 8, will find out whether his alcohol-fueled, anti-Semitic rant last summer hurts his box office showing.

Michael Richards' racist tirade at a comedy club two weeks ago -- days before the release of a new ``Seinfeld'' season on DVD -- was captured on video and seen around the world.

Then there are Danny DeVito and rapper Snoop Dogg. DeVito appeared on ABC's ``The View'' on Wednesday morning drunk and proceeded to make fun of President George W. Bush instead of promoting his new comedy ``Deck the Halls.'' Snoop Dogg was arrested a day earlier on drug and weapons charges as he left the studio of ``The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' in Burbank.

Their very public faux pas come at a time when they, and the companies behind them, have a lot on the line.

``There are levels of forgivability and nonforgivability,'' said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. ``O.J. Simpson? Totally not forgiven. Sex and drug scandals? Totally forgiven.''

And don't forget singer Michael Jackson, acquitted of child-molestation charges, but whose U.S. career hasn't shown any signs of recovery.

James Ulmer, founder of The Ulmer Scale, which ranks star power and bankable value of celebrities around the world, said these four scandals will be interesting test cases in the court of public opinion.

``All of these incidents colliding at the same time gives us the chance to look at what it all means and what is at stake with stardom and celebrity and how the off-camera games can play for you or against you,'' Ulmer said.

Trouble for Richards

Richards seems to be under the biggest cloud after he exploded into a vicious racist rant aimed at two black audience members during a stand-up appearance at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood last month. The Nov. 17 incident, recorded by an audience member and seen around the world via the video-sharing site YouTube, came just days before Sony Home Entertainment released the DVD boxed set of the seventh season of ``Seinfeld.''

``There's just so many more venues to talk about this stuff, to hear about it and to see it,'' Thompson said. ``A mere two years ago, that Michael Richards thing would've made the gossip columns in the form of a description of the incident. There was no YouTube, an international distribution system that is effortless to use.''

Despite a call this week by the Rev. Jesse Jackson to boycott the ``Seinfeld Season 7'' DVD out last week, sales have still been robust, with the set ranked 13th among all releases Thursday afternoon on the Amazon.com sales chart.

Sony declined to comment on Richards in connection with the DVD release.

Ironically, Gibson reached out to Richards this week in an interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine. ``I feel really badly for the guy,'' Gibson said. ``He was obviously in a state of stress. You don't need to be inebriated to be bent out of shape. But my heart went out to the guy.''

While Gibson may be genuine, Ulmer likened his public support to ``President Bush going to campaign for Rick Santorum. You don't want to go there.''

The apology route

Where you do want to go is the public-apology route, according to public-relations expert Michael Levine.

``If you act with humility, speed, personal contrition and personal responsibility, you are basically OK,'' Levine said. ``The archetype of that model would be Hugh Grant,'' the actor who was arrested a decade ago for soliciting a prostitute and quickly appeared on ``The Tonight Show'' to explain himself.

Richards appeared via satellite on David Letterman's show a few days later to apologize publicly and to declare that he is not a racist. He also had meetings with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jackson, appearing on Jackson's syndicated radio show.

Gibson's challenge

While ``Seinfeld'' is selling on DVD, the period adventure ``Apocalypto,'' produced and directed by Gibson, will be the first test of his drawing power since he disgraced himself by lashing out with anti-Semitic statements to an arresting officer in Malibu who had stopped him for driving drunk. Gibson issued a public apology insisting that he is not anti-Semitic.

Disney acquired Gibson's movie for distribution, but did not finance it.

``The picture was always going to be a tough sell,'' said box office analyst Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo. ``After the anomaly of `The Passion of the Christ,' people were expecting anything he touched to be gold. When he had that despicable incident earlier this year, the thought was that `Apocalypto' was in trouble. It seems to have the negatives of `Passion' but not the positives, such as being based on a universally famous story.''

But Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, thinks moviegoers will look past the controversy.

``I think audiences will distinguish between the professional filmmaking that Mel Gibson's involved in and Mel Gibson's personal life,'' Cook said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Thursday. ``Mel is one of the great filmmakers of all time.''

DeVito likely forgiven

DeVito's current movie, ``Deck the Halls,'' came out a week ago to a lukewarm reception and he was appearing on ``The View'' to give it some needed promotion. But on the show, the actor-director was slurring his words and unsteady on his feet. He referred to the president by a disparaging name, then mocked Bush and outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with goofy Three Stooges-style facial expressions.

``Danny DeVito is loved,'' Ulmer said. ``He's drunk and it's not good, but will it hurt his career? No. He is not playing against his iconography as a buffoon who is funny and lovable and someone you want to forgive -- unlike Michael Richards, who is disgraced. Comedians can usually turn a situation around comically, but in (Richard's) situation, he can't. All you can do is hope that time will heal all wounds.''

Snoop's CD selling

Of the four celebrities currently in hot water, Snoop Dogg appears to have the least to worry about in terms of career fallout, even though he could be in the worst trouble with the criminal-justice system.

When Burbank police served Snoop (whose real name is Calvin Broadus) outside NBC studios with a search warrant, they said they found the rapper/actor in possession of cocaine, a firearm and a large amount of marijuana. The search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into Snoop's arrest last month at Bob Hope Airport on a weapons violation.

Snoop's new CD, ``The Blue Carpet Treatment,'' was No. 4 on the rap and hip-hop chart on Amazon.com on Thursday.

``Bottom line is that I don't think this hurts him professionally. He's always had these two facets: lovable and user-friendly, then this kind of gangsta edge,'' said Bill Adler, who wrote and produced the five-part series on hip-hop ``And You Don't Stop'' for VH-1 that featured Snoop Dogg among others.

``It seems to me he's getting a little old for these kinds of shenanigans, but it's not inconsistent with everything we've always known and loved about this man,'' Adler added.

While his recording career appears to be OK for now, his career in movies could be in some peril.

``Movies are different than CDs, and he's a publicist's nightmare,'' Ulmer said. ``People are going to be very careful about him. When you are promoting a picture, you don't want all the attention to be sucked up by bad publicity.''

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Comedian Michael Richards is still on the hook for his onstage rant aimed at a group of black patrons at a Los Angeles comedy club.