Kiwiblog

AP reports:

A French lawyer for director Roman Polanski, imprisoned in Switzerland, says a new bail offer will be filed today and it will be a “very, very significant” cash amount.

He is trying to buy his freedom. It is almost inevitable he will flee back to France, even if it costs him millions of dollars.

Andrew Bolt blogs on the support for Polanski from Gore Vidal:

Author Gore Vidal says he refuses to feel any sympathy for Roman Polanski’s rape victim, whom he dubs a “hooker.”

In an interview with The Atlantic, the controversial 83-year-old author of such books as “Myra Breckinridge” and “1876” says of the director’s sex scandal, “I really don’t give a [expletive]. Look am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s being taken advantage of?”

The young woman to whom he is referring is Samantha Geimer, who was a 13-year-old aspiring model in 1977 when she was drugged and raped by Polanski.

Even worse Vidal claims Polanski is being persecuted because he is Jewish! No it is because he is a rapist!

Some pretty revolting blind eyes being turned in the movie world, as reported in the Herald:

Petitions from leading film directors and other cinema figures, including one signed by the celebrated Polish director, Andrzej Wajda, focused most of their anger on the Swiss authorities. The fact that the Polish-born Mr Polanski was arrested as he arrived to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival was, they said, “a provocation”.

No a provocation is the fact he allegedly raped a 13 year old girl, and fled the country.

A leading French director, Bertrand Tavernier, said: “The Swiss are extraordinary. Here is a law which is supposed to combat drug-trafficking and tax evasion and the first victim they pick on is an artist.”

Oh how dare they pick on an artist. The shame, the shame. Artists are all good noble people.

He did not get arrested because he is an artist. He got arrested because he is an (alleged) child rapist.

The Swiss Economy Minister, Doris Leuthard, rejected suggestions that the arrest was intended to ease strained relations between Switzerland and the US. An extradition treaty between Washington and Berne obliged Switzerland to act, without question, on any arrest warrant issued by the US authorities, she said. The international outcry on Mr Polanski’s behalf implied that there should be a law for ordinary people and another for celebrated film directors, she suggested.

That is precisely what they are saying it seems.

In a radio interview, the French Foreign Minister, Mr Kouchner, said that the Californian and Swiss authorities had acted unreasonably. “It’s a little sinister, this business, to be quite frank,” Mr Kouchner said. “A man of such talent, recognised throughout the world … All this is not nice.”

Being arrested for rape is not nice I agree. Being raped as a 13 year old is even worse I would say. The only sinister aspect is that France has sheltered him for so long.

The jury of the Zurich film festival … accused the Swiss government of “philistine collusion” with the US.

Oh yes those cultural philistines. How dare they arrest a movie director for child rape. Don’t those philistines know it is okay if you are an artist.

The jury’s president, the American actress Debra Winger, said: “[The arrest] is based on a three-decade-old case that is all but dead but for minor technicalities.”

So if you flee overseas, then the case should be dropped if you do it for long enough.

When news of his arrest first came through I was thinking hey maybe they should not send him to jail. But the more the cultural elite complain about what has happened, the harsher I think the sentence should be.

AP reports:

ZURICH – Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, authorities said Sunday.

Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said U.S. authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005.

Something that many people do not realise is this was not the case of consensual sex with a 13 year old girl, but of actual rape. Of course both are crimes, but they differ in severity:

In 1977, he was accused of raping the teenager while photographing her during a modeling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson’s house while the actor was away. She said that, despite her protests, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy on her.

In his favour, the victim no longer wants him prosecuted. This may be because she received a private settlement, but according to Wikipedia:

In a 2003 interview,^[34] Samantha Geimer 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.” Furthermore, “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”.

In 2008, Geimer stated in an interview that she wishes Polanski would be forgiven, “I think he’s sorry, I think he knows it was wrong. I don’t think he’s a danger to society. I don’t think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever – besides me – and accused him of anything. It was 30 years ago now. It’s an unpleasant memory … (but) I can live with it.”^[35]

That same month, Samantha Geimer filed to have the charges against Polanski dismissed from court, saying that decades of publicity as well as the prosecutor’s focus on lurid details continues to traumatize her and her family.^[40]

I think it is appropriate he does face some consequences for his crime. And no being forced to live in France is not what most people consider punishment.

It sends out a bad signal that you are above the law if you are rich and famous and can flee to France.