Hollywood just doesn't have a clue. Whenever conservatives decry "Hollywood values," the howls emanate from Malibu, with some justification. Why demonize an entire city's residents as immoral and soulless when folks there have families and lives far removed -- for the most part -- from reality-show fodder?
Then a fugitive from justice is picked up in Switzerland to finally face the crime of having sex with a minor, a crime he pleaded guilty to more than 30 years before, and his famous friends circle the wagons. Cue the stereotype.
Not everyone in Hollywood and the European arts community is on board. The New York Times reports that while Polanski adds juice to his legal team -- in the form of Reid Weingarten, a Washington power player -- political and cultural leaders are pushing back against initial support for the director.
Marie-Louise Fort, a National Assembly member, is not the only French official shocked by the pro-Polanski statements from her country's culture and foreign ministers. "I don't believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all," she said in the Times story. "I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple." An online poll backs her up.
In Los Angeles, Paul Petersen, former child star and president of A Minor Consideration, a foundation devoted to the protection of young performers, said: "The Hollywood community is protecting him. It makes me crazy." Jewel and Sherri Shepherd have also tweeted their dismay.
But Polanski's friends are so indignant in their support -- more than 100 have signed on -- that achieving justice seems beside the point. And justice is what this is about, not the fact that his victim, no longer 13 years old, has blessedly moved on. (Their newfound concern for the privacy of the now-grown wife and mother is weak compared to their vocal protestations on the director's behalf.) Polanski's defenders offer not merely sympathy. Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and others in the film industry object to the Academy Award-winning director's very arrest. Studio mogul Harvey Weinstein says Polanski "has served his time" for the "so-called crime."
In an op-ed, Weinstein says: "I hope the U.S. government acts swiftly because filmmakers are looking for justice to be properly served." Oh yes, the government needs to get its priorities in order so next time, the director can pick up his Oscar in this country.
That Polanski's supporters didn't think it horribly inappropriate for Woody "the Heart Wants What It Wants" Allen -- the guy who had nude photos of and later married his then-girlfriend's daughter -- to put his name on a petition speaks of a maddening cluelessness. When Allen received an ovation at the post-9/11 Academy Awards as he introduced a montage of New York film clips, I remember thinking, "Just when everybody finally loved the Big Apple, Hollywood puts this guy front and center?" At least skipping his later films is no hardship.
I really enjoy the work of Scorsese and Debra Winger, but who knew that they thought creative talent excuses criminal acts? My colleague David Gibson is correct in his righteous indignation, an opinion shared by folks who know Roman Polanski the shoe salesman would never merit such gold-plated support.
To those who know and have worked with Polanski, he might be a heck of a guy. But what's next, a march down Rodeo Drive?
You realize how strange the controversy has become when Luc Besson, the French director of the wild and crazy "Fifth Element," is the voice of sanity. In the Times article, Besson, who describes himself as a Polanski friend, is quoted telling a radio interviewer: "Our daughters are good friends. But there is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone."
Source: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09/30/free-roman-polanski-a-backlash-begins-as-some-folks-finally-get/
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