In Hollywood, there are unforgivable crimes – performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration, for one. Making a serious movie about Christ’s passion and death, for another. But a powerful and celebrated 43-year-old director raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old? Not so much.
Roman Polanski, now an octogenarian, has been on the lam from the U.S. for 40 years, and neither Poland nor France, where he has dual citizenship, will extradite the old rapist. But he’s been anything but ostracized by his peers. In 2003, he was treated to a standing ovation (led by kindness enthusiast and national conscience Meryl Streep) when he won the Oscar for directing The Pianist. Just last Wednesday, France’s National Film Academy announced it had named Polanski President of its annual Cesar Awards.
But it seems there are at least some “women’s groups” doing more than walking around in vagina suits. Some feminists and France’s women’s rights minister objected to giving Polanski the honor and Roman the Rapist is out.
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Still, the wellsprings of support for Polanski run deep in Hollywood and elite media circles. Actress and The View yacker Whoopi Goldberg infamously defended Polanski because the incident wasn’t what she called “rape-rape.”
Back in 2009, more than 100 entertainment figures signed a petition calling for his release (he was briefly arrested by Swiss authorities, who intended to send him to the U.S. to finally receive sentencing -- he originally fled the U.S. after his conviction but before sentencing). Among them were Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci. (Yes, that Woody Allen.)
So whether he returns somehow to the U.S. or dies “on the run,” as it were, we can expect more heartfelt Hollywood appreciation for the guy who gave a pubescent girl champagne and drugs, took naked pics of her and then sodomized her in a hot tub. Remember that next time Meryl Streep wants to lecture us about what kind of nation we’ve become.
