Making the right call on Polanski should be a no-brainer.
A warning to readers. This post discusses a very serious sexual assault. Discretion is advised.
One of these days I’m going to quit being shocked at the hypocrisy of our liberal elites. Maybe.
Or maybe not.
Because what we are seeing and hearing with respect to the recent arrest of Roman Polanski is truly astonishing.
If you’ve missed it, here’s the story. Roman Polanski is a well-known and very successful film producer and director. Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist are among his film credits. In 1977, when he was 44, Polanski convinced a 13-year old girl named Samantha Gailey to pose for photographs in the home of Jack Nicholson. While there, Polanski plied the 13-year old girl with champagne and Quaaludes and convinced her to remove her clothes following which he raped and sodomized her.
Polanski was arrested and charged with rape by use of drugs, sodomy, perversion, lewd and lascivious acts upon a child and providing illicit substances to a minor. Those charges were dropped to a lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor as a part of a plea agreement between prosecutors and Polanski.
Polanski was due to be formally sentenced and fearing that the terms of the plea agreement would not be upheld by the judge, left the country and has been living in France and Poland for the past 31 years.
Earlier this week, Polanski went to Switzerland to receive an award and was arrested by Swiss police and is being held there pending extradition back to the United States.
This is all too much for the Hollywood glitterati. Luminaries such as Harrison Ford, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese are demanding that Polanski be released. Debra Winger accused the Swiss of reaching a “Philistine conclusion” in detaining Polanski. Earlier this week on The View, Whoopi Goldberg was at pains to ask if what Polanski did is really “rape rape.” Couldn’t it be some kinder, gentler form of rape? But not actual “rape rape.”
The beautiful people of Hollywood need us to understand. True artists are different. We must consider the body of their work and their high aesthetic achievement. We have to allow artists considerable latitude due to their irreplaceable contributions to mankind. Besides, Mr. Polanski has suffered enough and it’s time to (altogether now) move on.
Just a question for Ms. Goldberg. If a 44-year old man drugging a 13-year old girl and sodomizing her isn’t really rape, what is? I’m just askin’.
Consider all of this and think back to 1991 when the first president Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. You might recall that a former employee named Anita Hill came forward and alleged that Thomas had come on to her and had made improper sexual advances. She didn’t allege that he raped her or even assaulted her. She alleged that he ogled her and hit on her in the workplace.
She alleged these things. They were never proved and Justice Thomas, unlike Roman Polanski, denied the charges.
Yet the left went nuts. He’s not fit, they cried. His behavior demonstrates a lack of respect for women and his confirmation would put the women’s movement back by decades. The National Organization for Women decried the nomination as an assault on women’s rights.
All over an allegation.
And yet, when a Hollywood liberal is finally caught decades after jumping bail and skipping out following admitting to sexually assaulting a 13-year old girl (how’s that for a lack of respect for women?), we must not be Philistines and we must understand his artistry and cease and desist our persecution.
Well here’s a note to Hollywood and other liberal elites. If you’re going to tell me how to live, what car I can drive, how I can heat and cool my home and how much health care I’m entitled to, you have to do so from some basis of credibility.
You need to get something right.
Keeping your mouth shut and letting the justice system deal with a lecherous old man who brutalized a 13-year old girl and has been a fugitive for three decades would be a good place to start. Anyone should be able make the right call on this one.
If you can’t get this one right, you’ll forgive me if I think you lack the moral standing to tell the rest of the country how to live.
This shows the superior attitude these stars exhibit. To think that anyone is above the law, especially in a sex case, in bad. The man should be put in prison for the term sentenced and then made to register as a sex offender for any of his remaining days he might have left after that. Any income he is recieving off the movies he made should be garnished and put into programs to help victims of sex crimes.
People out there should boycott any movies and shows put out by people who are supporting this sex offender and maybe that will get the point across that not only do we not tolerate this type of crime but we also will not support those arrogant to believe that people should be above the law based on their place in life. They are role models and should be putting a positive out look on things like this for the rest of the country and world.
I for one will never again go to a theater to see a movie with Harrison Ford, Debra Winger, or Whoopie Goldberg in it. If it ends up being something I feel I have to see I will wait for it to come out on TV.
In my whole life I’ve only seen two Polanski directed films – Chinatown and Frantic. Didn’t much care for either one. Frantic was my least favorite Harrison Ford flick, Chinatown my least favorite Nicholson outing (though admittedly I’m not a big Nicholson fan either.
Polanski’s films, the ones I’ve seen and the ones I’ve only seen previews of, seem sleazy and dark anyway and I’m not terribly surprised that Polanski did something sleazy and dark himself.
Is anyone really surprised that Hollywood would support their boy? The man generates a lot of work for everybody. If Hollywood turned on one of it’s cash cows, some of the glitterati might just have to give up the second Ferrari and that would be unacceptable. Think of the starving Italian peasant auto workers who would be put out of work if that happened.
AND you can bet that every producer who ever sacked a starlet would take note of which actors and actresses could be trusted next time there’s a casting call.
Hollywood could no more turn on a big time producer than Exxon could go around insulting Arab sheiks and princes. It just ain’t good business.
You’ll note that the causes they champion are pretty much low risk for their careers. As much as they depend on movie-goers for their living, we’ve all been willing to ignore the character flaws of the people involved in making a film, if we need a two hour escape and the film makes us laugh or takes our minds off the rat-race.
It’s easy to talk a tough game, but having principles can be pretty difficult. For all our tough talk, how many of us would skip the last installment of the Harry Potter series or some other favorite movie simply because Roman Polanski directed it or, even harder, if some actor who supported him was only a member of the cast. Do you skip the whole movie because somebody with low moral standards is in the movie?
People laugh at people who don’t go to theaters for moral or religious reasons. See what I mean?
Tom King
Flint, TX
I wonder where the 13-year-old’s Father was in all this. If someone had done that to my Sister, my father would have taken care of it before the SOB could have left the country.
But I think the point that is being brushed aside here and in other discussions of Polanski is why he left the country. If the prosecutors and judge had upheld their word, he would have served out his sentence. It’s frustrating when those that are supposed to be the good guys (prosecutors, judges, and the police) can consistently not be trusted.
the man raped a 13 yr old girl Hollywood! all u low lifes that think this low life should not pay because its been 30+ yrs! OR BECAUSE HE IS A GREAT AT WHAT HE DOES! i wounder how many other 10,12,13,14,yr old girls have been molested{raped}over the 30yrs with this predator loose. oh by the way do u have any children 12,13,14 if they been around him you might want to ask them if he touch them. maybe your opinion of him will change after it is your child. or little sister! once a molester always molester this is {A} typical Hollywood. it disgust me to think any one would condone this.. HOLLYWOOD you should be ashamed!!!! they should throw the book at him and set an example out of him maybe that would send a message