Barton and Gervinho were both disgraceful in their actions, but the sad thing is 90% of footballers would have dived as Gervinho did and thrown themselves to the floor as Barton did. Having said that, the ref made the right call - the rules are if you raise your hands it's a straight red.
But I think the whole situation was embarassing for football as a whole - not just Joey and Gervinho - the other 20 players as well for swarming the officials and trying to manipulate their decisions. I wish refs would be more strict in those scenarios though. Just say 'piss off, or your getting booked' to everyone but the captains and the involved players.
Basically I'm just pissed off that professional footballers are giving a great sport a bad reputation.