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This is the latest in a long series of efforts by Roman Polanski and friends to help the Oscar-winning director return to this country. The AP reports that lawyers for Polanski, who’s been a fugitive in France for the past 30 years, filed a request today to dismiss the notorious sex case involving an underage girl because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. The motion alleges that a documentary about Polanski released earlier this year revealed “a pattern of misconduct and improper communications” between the DA’s office and the judge in Polanski’s case. It was back in 1978 that Polanski skipped sentencing and fled the United States after pleading guilty to having sex with the 13-year-old who has since forgiven him. He was initially indicted on six felony counts and faced up to life in prison. Instead, he pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Five other counts were dismissed. When he left the country, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest that is still in effect. Polanski won the Bes Director Oscar for 2002′s The Pianist.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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13 years old, people. Thirteen! Take a look at your daughters, or some young girl that’s 13 years old. That’s what he did. Sure, it was 30 years ago, the “girl” is now well into her prime, and has allegedly forgiven him. It was the ’70s, it was LA…so what? Thirteen! And where’s the apology? Where’s the Mea Culpa? Nowhere. Now he’s just grousing about prosecutorial misconduct? Uhmmmm, Roman? Rape? Drugged 13 year old girl? You REALLY want to bring up the subject of misconduct? As if 30 years exile in France has been ANY kind of punishment for this crime? Even after OJ, Blake, Spector, etc. c’mon LA. Please let’s not let this guy think he can slink back into the country. She was thirteen!
Hey Sally, we don’t need to know how warm and caring a human being Roman is. I wonder how caring he would have been if someone had drugged and raped his daughter when she was 13. I suspect he wouldn’t have been quite so caring then. Or perhaps he raped her himself..peds have a tendency to be repeat offenders after all. I hope he rots in hell — oh yeah he lives in France so he’s already there.
All I am saying is that in general pedophilia has been pathologized over the last centuries when in the past it has been normal for older individuals to have relationships with younger people – i.e. Greece etc. Contrary to popular belief, I believe that children have a sexuality when parents pretend they don’t. After puberty they can make their own sexual decisions. But I won’t go into a debate about age of consent etc.
As noted above, it is probably slightly different in Europe but it has been extremely scandalized in North America.
In this case, as I articulated, the fact that drugs were involved makes it a bigger problem, and criminal.
P.S. I won’t return those sick and hateful things that were being said because of a difference in opinion.
Dear Mr. Polanski,
While I have seen several of your films, and they are quite good, the fact remains you are a worthless kidfucker.
Burn in Hell.
Also, for the purpose of taking part in a discussion between intelligent people, make sure you understand that ‘rape’ and ‘pedophilia’ are not synonymous and in fact are mutually exclusive.
Sally writes, “Roman Polanski is a kind, thoughtful, engaged and intelligent human being. In Europe, being 13 isn’t so young — Europeans are different. I am not saying it was right or wrong, but for those that don’t know Roman, throwing these ugly comments is only a comment on our society. He’s a great, caring and loving person. And, the Holocaust could very well be a reason for someone to have late blooming experiences — he lost 8 years of his life. He is NOT a scumbag!”
****
You make it very clear because “Europeans are different” you support Mr. Polanski– since 13 years old apparently isn’t all that young in Europe to be drugged and raped. But the end of your comment is dubious. It’s not quite clear if your understanding of this difference also leads you to support the Holocaust.
the issue is the trial, people. it was conducted in a grossly unethical manner subject to the personal whims of some chest-thumping, self-glorifying judge. you can choose to dislike Polanski for his crimes (I do) but that doesn’t mean the standards of the American justice system can be discarded at will. If Americans really had so little tolerance for sex with 13-year olds perhaps we should have ensured that no laws were broken or bent in the quest to punish Polanski.
The only sensible way to rectify this is if there were some way to dismiss the old case and re-charge him.
And I thought witch hunts were part of our past. Did anyone even take the girl’s point of view into consideration? The whole scenario seemed pretty consensual to me, despite the drug part.
This isn’t about rape and loss of innocence. This is about power. The power of posession that parents fear losing. People are outraged not for the act itself, but for the fact that it was a 13 year old who decided to engage in sexual activity, defying the whole concept of parental authority. It’s not as if Polanski dragged her from a parent’s hands. She went along with it.
Besides, rape involves violence. There was none of it in this case.
Using qualudes and alcohol to drug a 13 yr old in order to have sex is rape whether in europe or not. what a loser, if he needs to drug someone in order to have sex. rape in any form is despicable!
“We are supposed to forgive this rat/midget pervert…”
Choose your words more carefully, Panama. Your statement is an insult to any small person.
What a life – from losing his mother and sister in concentration camps to losing his wife Sharon Tate in the gruesome Manson murders to drugging and sodomizing a minor…just goes to show violence begets violence. And rape is rape.
In a civilized society, we set standards for behavior so that life remains, well, civil. Sure, sex with 13-year-olds might have made sense in Greece a thousand years ago, or even in an Amazonian village in hunter-gatherer societies today. But in a technological society where people live into their 80s and beyond.. it just doesn’t make sense.
Roman Polanski engaged in behavior that this society considers criminal, then skipped the country to avoid paying for that crime. With that choice, he denied himself the benefits of living in the society which deemed his actions a crime. I agree, if he wants a retrial, he possibly has grounds for one. But he needs to work within the system.
Which, clearly, he does not want to do.
I pity the guy, in the sense that he’s clearly got a lot of demons. Even if he’s “nice”.
actually KT, rape and pedophellia are not mutually exclusive if the impulse to engage in sex with a minor is acted upon.
a minor in this case cannot consent to sexual relations with an adult and therefore, because consent cannot be given, any sexual relations with a minor does in fact constitute rape.
i suspect that you are justifying your position due to your own sexual proclivities or perhaps your own illegal activities. either way you are a troubled person.
This is a side note about a guilty plea versus a guilty finding, not a comment on Polanski: in America a guilty plea doesn’t always mean you did it, only that you’ve weighed the cost of mounting a defense, how backed up the courts are, and how risky it is to trust the justice system, so you’ve chosen a plea bargain. Polanski has a higher profile than most, but spend a day in court some time and you’ll be astonished at how pragmatic the process is (especially if you’re poor).
We should let him back into the US and then arrest him – there’s no law that says Cops and Prosecutors can’t lie to pedophiles-rapists.
So many of you posters sure have strong opinions about something you obviously know nothing about. Watch the documentary and you’ll see. The film makes no excuses for Polanski’s behavior, which, in the eyes of many who see it, will continue to remain deplorable.
However, Polanski never got a fair trial. He was planning to plead not guilty, but the judge offered him a plea bargain on reduced charges that had him go to prison for a period of time for psychological observation. He did serve that time, and only fled the country when he realized the judge was going to revoke the deal he made (in the presence of both the prosecuting and defense attorneys) and sentence Polanski to a much longer period of time than initially agreed upon.
Polanski was never convicted of, nor did he plead guilty to, drugging and raping the girl. Had he ever gone before a jury, he might very well have been cleared of those charges. People should not automatically assume that just because Polanski pled guilty to a lesser charge that he was necessarily guilty of all of the more serious charges initally brought against him and later dropped.
And the legal system should not be allowed to manipulate confessions out of people by promising sentences they have no intention of delivering.
Sad to read these comments here. This is the problem with most people. They don’t think that there is anything wrong with raping children. They don’t think 13 is young. It is really sad.
The fact is Roman Polanski is a cowardly pedophile. Like any criminal – he commit the crime continuously until getting caught. Instead he jumped bail and a confessed pedophile has been left loose on the public. And people think that his prominence in society excuses violent acts – it is truly more sad than anything else. This is the reason why most children find it hard to speak up against their abusers.
I could cry over this.
Please, we cannot let Roman Polanski back to work with children in the entertainment industry.
Hollywood has a HUGE problem with pedophilia. So much so that SAG/AFTRA (yes, they actually did something together) did an entire educational workshop on the subject.
Unlike other areas where adults have personal contact with children (elementary schools, boy scouts, baseball) there is no fingerprint requirement, or law against sex offenders working with child actors. Yep, you heard that right…the director, manager or publicist could be a convicted child abuser and they could run out and make a film in Hollywood with child actors. Perfectly legal. Child actors are defenseless.
Pedophiles migrate to the entertainment industry because they can. It is a “target rich community”. Lots of children, little oversight, and a very liberal work environment. Pedophiles are not stupid…they go where they can be uh, creative and have access to the things they want.
There have been more than a few arrests in recent years. Managers, Publicists, Directors, etc. The use of date-rape drugs on children they are have relationships with (ie. not strangers) is VERY VERY common. It is also very common for the pedophile to claim the child was a willing participant and that “in Europe, people are more advanced in their thinking”.
Example: Studio Teacher Don Munro. This peachy guy abused more little boys while he was awaiting trial! Recently more victims have come forward, linking the activity to the set:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=de58680e-59c1-41cd-9338-77d078ad083f&k=6230
Example: Josh Werkmann, the manager of Disney’s Sprouse twins. On set every day with children (yes, that is odd behavior for a talent manager). He was convicted of child molestation of a teen boy last August. His deal is almost identical to the Polanski story, minus the running to another country. Instead, he is right back in Hollywood, working in the industry, using a new name here and there. He is still telling a story about how it was all a horrible misunderstanding.
It’s time for the industry to have a zero tolerance black-balling of CRIMINALS who work with children.
How far does this have to go before the industry realizes how bad it is?
If you want to analyze the collapse of ICM, look no further then the act that ICM’s chairman, Jeff Berg, is and has been for years the grinning public mouthpiece and apologist for this child rapist.
Yes, even Charles Manson may deserve an attorney , but where is it written that someone who drugs and sodomizes
a thirteen year old girl, and then flees justice, deserves an agent ?
What responsible artist would ever want to be represented by ICM, when there is clearly nothing they won’t stoop to do to make themselves a dollar ?
the fact that so many commenters are willing to damn Polanski in a heated and insulting way speaks volumes to the problem of ill-informed, self-satisfying hotheads who mar open discussion of very tough issues like statutory rape. no one has made mention of the girl’s mother trying to launch her acting career on Polanski’s back; she left her daughter unsupervised for a photo shoot which all agreed would be racy. And while consentual sex with a minor is statutory rape, most commenters shrilly put forth the image of Polanski brutalizing a “drugged” and comatose 13 year old, a view with no basis in fact. Polanski is not ‘right’ but again the trial was a circus. and @ Advocate: that there’ve been sexual predators in the entertainment industry reflects not one iota on the Polanski case. How irresponsible can you get?
HE MOLESTED A CHILD IN A FIT.
RAN FROM JUSTICE IN A SNIT.
NOW THE FRENCH REPROBATE,
WANTS BACK IN THE STATES,
NO WAY, YOU SICK PIECE OF SHIT!
According the the documentary, this man drugged, then sodomized that 13 year old girl. Yes, he ass-raped a drugged out child.
For all those who think he should be forgiven, you go out and ass rape someone’s daughter and see what the justice system does to you.
This is why people continue to hate Hollywood. A man screws his daughter (Woody Allen) and actors line up to work with him. A man ass rapes a child and we give him an Oscar. This is who he beat in 2003:
“Chicago” – Rob Marshall
“Gangs of New York” – Martin Scorsese
“The Hours” – Stephen Daldry
“Talk to Her” – Pedro Almodovar
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
A convicted pedophile rapist over this kind of talent? And for a movie whose themes have been done to death. What does that say to the world about the people running our business?
Advocate nailed it. If you want to know why so many former child stars end up addicted, out of control and/or dead, just look at how many pedophiles operate freely in Hollywood. Something need to be done about the sickness of the system. Putting a stop to the bizarre idolization of LA’s most infamous pedophile and keeping him out of the country is only a start.
Read the victim’s Grand Jury testamony if you think he didn’t do anything “that bad.” This is why statutory rape laws exist.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html
The teenager’s troubling–and contemporaneous–account of her abuse at Polanski’s hands begins with her posing twice for topless photos that the director said were for French Vogue. The girl then told prosecutors how Polanski directed her to, “Take off your underwear” and enter the Jacuzzi, where he photographed her naked. Soon, the director, who was then 43, joined her in the hot tub. He also wasn’t wearing any clothes and, according to Gailey’s testimony, wrapped his hands around the child’s waist.
The girl testified that she left the Jacuzzi and entered a bedroom in Nicholson’s home, where Polanski sat down beside her and kissed the teen, despite her demands that he “keep away.” According to Gailey, Polanski then performed a sex act on her and later “started to have intercourse with me.” At one point, according to Gailey’s testimony, Polanski asked the 13-year-old if she was “on the pill,” and “When did you last have your period?” Polanski then asked her, Gailey recalled, “Would you want me to go in through your back?” before he “put his penis in my butt.” Asked why she did not more forcefully resist Polanski, the teenager told Deputy D.A. Roger Gunson, “Because I was afraid of him.”
Bravo Anso!