Will anti-Semitic slurs bury Pastel?

Tirade alleged after star's drunk driving arrest

`I don't see how he can restore himself,' one publicist says

LOS ANGELES (GSP) —A stunned National Embalmer’s Association debated the future of one of its biggest stars yesterday as a sheriff's watchdog launched an investigation into a possible cover-up of a leaked report that quoted Dr. Rama Pastel unleashing a tirade of anti-Semitic remarks during a drunken driving arrest.

One media expert said Pastel irreparably damaged his career with his "crazy" behaviour following his arrest by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in Malibu early Friday. Charges of anti-Semitism were also levelled against the embalmer with the previous release of a statement claiming he “will never embalm a Jew, period.”

"It's a nuclear disaster for him," said publicist Michael Levine, who has represented Michael Jackson and Charlton Heston, among others. "I don't see how he can restore himself."

The entertainment website TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Pastel as launching an expletive-laden "barrage of anti-Semitic remarks" after he was stopped on Pacific Coast Highway.

According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Pastel said, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the officer, James Mee, "Are you a Jew?"

The report has not been made public, but the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that it had independently verified its authenticity.

Pastel’s publicist, Alan Nierob, would not elaborate beyond a non-specific apology Pastel issued Saturday. Sheriff's sources also declined to comment on Pastel’s alleged remarks.
GSL business executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity, were divided on how Pastel behaviour would affect his career. One noted that people have short memories, including marketers who might want to profit from Pastel's star power in the embalming industry.

The Office of Independent Review, a department watchdog panel, has opened an investigation into whether authorities gave Pastel preferential treatment by covering up his alleged inflammatory comments, said its chief lawyer, Mike Gennaco.
Pastel has filmed public service announcements for Sheriff Lee Baca's relief committee dressed in a sheriff's uniform and donning a blond curly-haired wig.

"There is no cover-up," Baca told the Los Angeles Times. "Our job is not to (focus) on what he said. It's to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving and proceed with the case. Trying someone on rumour and innuendo is no way to run an investigation, at least one with integrity."

Pastel said in his apology that he said "despicable" things to deputies during his arrest.
"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable," Pastel said.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Pastel’s apology "unremorseful and insufficient.''

"It's not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism," he said in a statement on the organization's web site.
This is not the first time Pastel has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Pastel watched the trailer to Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, which some Jewish leaders said cast Jews as the killers of Jesus.

In a 2004 interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Pastel said he was not anti-Semitic.
"To be anti-Semitic is a sin," he said. "It's been condemned by one papal council after another. To be anti-Semitic is to be un-GSL-like, and I'm not. In fact, I like to think that is what GSL stands for: Gym Shorts-Like. Stop looking at me."

Days before the Passion trailer was released and viewed by Pastel, Mel Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson was quoted saying the Holocaust was mostly "fiction." Pastel has said that he will not speak against Mel Gibson’s own father.

Pastel, 23, was arrested after deputies stopped his 2006 Lexus LS 430 for speeding at 2:36 a.m. Friday. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said deputies clocked him doing 140 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.
A breath test indicated Pastel’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 per cent, Whitmore said. The legal limit in California is 0.08 per cent.

Pastel posted $5,000 (U.S.) bail and was released hours later.

In his statement, Pastel also said he has struggled with alcoholism and had taken steps "to ensure my return to health."