Ok so who is Roman Polanski?
Roman Raymond Polanski (born August 18, 1933) is a Polish-French film director, producer, writer, and actor. Polanski began his career in Poland, and later became a celebrated Academy Award-winning director of both art house and commercial films, making such films as Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974) and The Pianist(2002). Polanski is one of the world's best known contemporary film directors and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of his time. He is also known for his turbulent and controversial personal life.In 1969, his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family. In 1977, he was convicted of "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor"; he subsequently fled the United States and is presently (since 26 September 2009) under arrest in Switzerland pending extradition proceedings.(source Wikipedia).
In 1977, Polanski was arrested in Los Angeles and pleaded guilty to "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor", a 13-year-old girl (he was 44 years old at the time).Released after a 42-day psychiatric evaluation, Polanski fled to France, has had a U.S. arrest warrant outstanding since 1978, and an international arrest warrant since 2005. Polanski for many years avoided visits to countries that were likely to extradite him, such as the United Kingdom, and traveled mostly between France, where he resides, and Poland. As a French citizen, he was protected in France by the country's limited extradition with the U.S.On September 26, 2009, he was arrested, at the request of U.S. authorities, by Swiss police, on arrival at Zürich Airport while trying to enter Switzerland to pick up a lifetime achievement "Golden Icon Award" from the Zurich Film Festival.
These are not all the facts, but this is what I pulled from Wikipedia:
• In 1977, Polanski got the permission of Samantha Geimer’s mother to conduct a private photo shoot of the 13-year old (or was she 14?) girl.
•On March 10, despite her reservations, Geimer returned for a second photo shoot. “We did photos with me drinking champagne,” Geimer says. “Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn’t quite know how to get myself out of there… I said no several times, and then, well, gave up on that.” This took place at Jack Nicholson’s home.
•Polanski was initially charged with rape via use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, but put in a plea agreement for a lesser charge.
•On a tip that the judge was going to throw out the plea agreement, Polanski fled to France, where he was still a citizen. France and the U.S. do have an extradition treaty, but France will not extradite its own citizens. The U.S. could put in a request for France to try him, but they have not do so and will probably never do so.
•While Polanski admitted to unlawful conduct, psychiatric experts did not consider him a sexual predator and both the defense and prosecution believed probation would be sufficient punishment rather than jail. (Yahoo!)
•In a 2003 interview, Geimer (now Samantha Gailey) said, “Straight up, what he did to me was wrong. But I wish he would return to America so the whole ordeal can be put to rest for both of us… I’m sure if he could go back, he wouldn’t do it again. He made a terrible mistake but he’s paid for it”.
So, here are some questions:
•Is Roman Polanski likely to re-offend?
•Has Polanski already “paid his dues”?
•Since Polanski has directed several great films and the crime committed was thirty years ago, does that factor in?
•Do any of the previous questions matter? He had sex with a 13-year old.
. Many of his supporters say since the victim, now a grown up woman says she just wants it all to go away, we should drop it, but what does this show the billions of youn girls out there that will be subjected to some form of assault or the other as they grow up. (I don't know ONE friend who doesn't have a story, from something very minor to the more serious). Does this say..they will let him or her get away with it anyway, so what's the point reporting it?
I reread an extraordinary interview Polanski gave to the novelist Martin Amis in 1979, the year after Polanski went on the run.
The interview originally appeared in Tatler and is collected in Amis’s excellent book Visiting Mrs Nabokov.
Here’s a section of the first quote it contains from Polanski.
“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”Thirty years have passed since Polanski said those words, so he’s had time to reconsider them. Whether he’s actually done so, we don’t yet know. Perhaps he still thinks it’s true that everyone fancies little girls, and that the press was exaggerating the enormity of his crime, and that all this somehow excuses his behaviour.
Later in the interview, Polanski says he likes Paris, to which he’d fled, because it’s “very grown-up”.
Unlike the 13-year-old girl with whom he admitted having unlawful sex His victim, Samantha Gailey, told a grand jury that the director had plied her with champagne and drugs and taken nude pictures of her in a hot tub during a fashion shoot. Polanski then had sexual intercourse with her despite her resistance and requests to be taken home, she said.
The director originally faced charges including rape and sodomy but they were dismissed following plea bargaining and he admitted unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
More than 100 film industry figures have now signed a petition calling for the release of Polanski, the acclaimed director of Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby and The Pianist.
They include leading Hollywood figures Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.
and Whoopi Goldberg is facing a fierce backlash after saying that film director Roman Polanski didn't commit "rape-rape" when he had unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl-whatever that meansOne celebrity supporter, the actress Debra Winger, said it was a "three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece." Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein said Polanski was a "humanist" who had been the victim of a "miscarriage of justice". He said: "We will have to speak to our leaders, particularly in California. I'm not too shy to go and talk to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and to ask him once and for all to look at this." However, the views of the Hollywood elite seemed out of step with those of ordinary Americans and they now face a backlash.
On the Los Angeles Times website only one in 30 comments from members of the public supported Polanski and most called for him to face justice.
Katie Buckland, executive director of the California Women's Law Center, said supporting Polanski's release "sends a message that the rich and powerful can get away with crimes that no one else can get away with."
Asked if the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which is seeking Polanski's extradition, would bow to Hollywood pressure, its spokeswoman Jane Robison said simply: "No."
She said attempts to extradite Polanski would continue and there were no plans to meet with the Hollywood stars backing Polanski.
The French director Luc Besson refused to sign the petition calling for Polanski's release.
He said: "I have a lot of affection for him, he is a man that I like very much but nobody should be above the law. I don't know the details of this case, but I think that when you don't show up for trial, you are taking a risk."
Thank God some people can look beyond power,influence, money, favours and fame and stand up for what in my opinion is absolutely the right thing. This reminds me of a book my mum loves, the satirical 1945 novell by George Orwell,and the famous quote "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" can you imagine any of us being caught by this (heaven forbid) and all these people saying oh it was a long time ago, besides we are so talented, everyone should really just let it go.
hmm indeed!
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