It seems only yesterday — in fact it was just over three years ago — that columnists and commentators were falling over themselves to badmouth Hollywood bad boy Mel Gibson. Gibson, it will be remembered, had fully illustrated the reality of "in vino veritas" by indulging in an antisemitic tirade when pulled over by the police for being drunk.

I recall at the time forecasting that it wouldn't take long before Hollywood would re-clasp Gibson to its bosom since he is, of course, fabulously wealthy.

And so it proved today as chat-show host Jay Leno was all over Gibson like a rash, the occasion being manly congratulations on the film star having got his Russian girlfriend pregnant. Lest it be forgotten, Gibson, though in the throes of divorce, is still married and has seven children with his wife.

It's difficult to know who is the most distasteful part of this latter-day fairytale. Gibson, who once predicted that his wife, who is not a Catholic, would not go to heaven ("there is no salvation for those outside the Church"); the girlfriend, who seems to have a Hollywood tough-guy habit - she already has a teenage son from a liaison with one-time Bond actor Timothy Dalton; or Jay Leno, welcoming Gibson back into the fold as though all were well.

They all deserve each other.