Hollyweird Double Standard: Hate the Pope, Love Roman Polanski

Double standards are often nothing of the sort, and charges of double standards are often dodges by the disingenuous designed to convince the sophomoric that adhering to any kind of standard is inherently unjust.  But then there are some actual double standards that are so shamelessly transparent that one should be embarrassed to even utter them.

Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com does not seem to be embarrassed.  He recently unleashed the full power of his ire upon the Pope over the recent child abuse accusations.  And his ire is awesome to behold, as we can learn from the plugs and testimonials his website continuously flashes – plugs testifying to his influence from the very same Hollywoodoids whose toes he claims to be willing to tread upon with abandon.

In short, Wells supports the wacky idea that a couple of well-known atheists should somehow arrest Pope Benedict on his trip to England:

I for one would be impressed and delighted if author and noted biologist and author Richard Dawkins and author Christopher Hitchens could manage to actually arrest Pope Benedict for crimes against humanity during a planned visit to England in September. The Pope “is not above or outside the law,” Hitchens has said. “The institutionalized concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment.”

Certainly, the spectacle of the doddering Dawkins and the perpetually pickled Hitchens (who is not a dumb guy, is a tireless advocate against dictators and thugs, and really ought to know better) trying to cuff and stuff the pontiff would be amusing – especially watching the Pope’s unforgiving security team go to town upon them.  Advantage Hitchens – he’d be unlikely to feel a thing. 

Certainly Dawkins could put up a fight using one of his tedious anti-deity diatribes as a weapon.  You haven’t been bored until you’ve been militant atheist bored – what do people at atheist organizations talk about after the first five seconds in which they all agree there’s no God?  And Hitchens could fall over on the guards – and the dude’s probably got a weight edge on the security team.  But in the end, the conclusion is kind of forgone – Pope Benedict will jet back to Rome and the atheists will pat themselves on their collective backs, assuming the efficient Swiss Guards somehow failed to break their arms.

Which brings us to Wells.  Leaving aside the question of why this Tinseltown transcriptionist is writing about the Pope and the No God Squad’s Britannic antics – shouldn’t he be breaking the news about the big budget 3D reimagining of My Mother The Car starring Matt Damon, Kristen Stewart and Ice-T? – it sure  is nice to see Hollywood taking an interest in holding to account those who have allegedly abused children.  In fact, Wells has a track record when it comes to folks in the public eye who treat kids as sexual playthings.

He supports them.

Polanski slammers on Wikipedia have apparently tried to amplify the matter into a much uglier and more pernicious thing than may be fairly warranted, and his defenders have tried to frame the episode within a realistic historical and sociological realm — i.e., one unmotivated by a curiously frenzied and tub-thumping moral outrage….

One shudders to think of what Wells considers to be truly “ugly” and “pernicious.”  And if you really want to mourn the state of humanity, just take a gander at the comments that follow Wells’s plea for understanding on behalf of the man who thought it was cool to drug up and anally rape a 13 year old girl. 

I don’t know what the Pope did or didn’t do – that’s for the police to deal with, along with the Catholic Church and even God Himself.  The chips will fall where they may.  But I know what Roman Polanski did, because he confessed to it and then ran away.  And no matter how wonderful and transcendent an artist he is supposed to be – I think he’s generally a hack – the same standard applies to him that applies to everyone else. 

Rape a child, go to jail. 

No matter who you are, and no matter how many Hollywood celebrities think a child is just acceptable collateral damage, a fair price to pay for the chance to bask in the glow of the artist’s unique vision.

Now, this dreadfully unprogressive, black-and-white, unnuanced, single standard philosophy goes against everything the Hollywoodids and their supplicants like Wells believe.  But for too long we’ve tolerated too many double standards – not just in Hollywood but throughout the progressive realm.  And it must end.  It’s time to call people like Jeffrey Wells and the rest of the excuse machine on those double standards.  Relentlessly.

As for Wells, at least he can be confident that if the logrolling website deal doesn’t work out, he has a great future – as community organizer advising “entrepreneurs” for whatever pestilent group rises from the ashes of ACORN.

Originally published at Big Hollywood.