Pardon the Language
Here’s a (very) partial list of the celebrities demanding that Roman Polanski be released:
Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.
What does this group have in common? Well, they’re all very talented. And also batshit crazy. There’s not one person on this list you would trust your child with. I don’t mean to imply that any of the celebs here in question (Woody Allen possibly excepted) would do something sexual to your daughter. But does anyone really want the creator of “Eraserhead” to spend quality time with their eight-year-old? Do any of the others seem to have a solid enough connection to reality to keep your kid safe and not somehow set him on fire?
And even if that’s not true, I’d still rather keep Bellucci’s acres of bosom to my adult self, where they belong, thank you very much.
Also on the petition were Darren Aronofsky, Asia Argento, Stephen Frears, Michael Mann, and a busload of Frenchies and Italians I’d never heard of and would rather I hadn’t.
So why the disconnect between flyover country and the entertainment world? (Yeah, I pretty much include all of Western Europe in “entertainment world.” [UPDATE: Wrongly! My apologies.])
What makes it OK to drug and rape a 13-year-old girl, make a deal with prosecutors, then run away? How is that not “rape-rape?” How is that not fleeing-fleeing? What gives Polanski a pass?
My guess is, that general weirdness is so common among entertainment-types, that it’s easy to overlook a little rape now and then. We see what these folks get away with in broad daylight — what could they possibly be doing when the shades are drawn? And so Whoopi sees Polanski in handcuffs and at some level might think, “There but for the grace of God go I.” And you can probably trace a straight line from Whoopi all the way down through the D-list.
All the above is, of course, pure speculation. But I have a little more of it for you before I set this topic aside — hopefully never to bring it up again.
America was willing to forgive Hollywood’s obscene salaries, comically high divorce rate, the sexual escapades, and all the rest. After all, here in the heartland, we wouldn’t mind having tons more money and sex. Hollywood, like the movie screen, shines with our own desires, embiggened.
But child rape? There’s a line there even hardened criminals won’t cross — and we’re supposed to forgive and forget?
Because Tilda Effing Swinton said so? And who is she again?
And let’s not mess around here. What Polanski did wasn’t simple statutory rape. There was no, “She sure looked 18, your honor!” This was a kid who Polanski got drunk, drugged and anally raped. And then he fled justice — a plea he copped to — like a coward. Not that it takes a brave man to slip ‘ludes to a 13-year-old.
Most of Hollywood, of course, hasn’t come anywhere near that petition. And good for them — although it’s strange, feeling the need to praise people for not putting their names to a demand to release a child rapist. But enough of them did sign that the rest of us were forced to sit up and take notice — and we couldn’t help but notice that we recognized more than a few of those signatures.
I mean… Martin Scorsese? Marty, you broke my heart.
I’m not sure the gulf between the entertainment world and the real world has ever been wider. And after this, I don’t think the rift can ever be healed.
UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier asks, “Is the contribution to art sacrificed? Maybe. Don’t be a pedophile rapist, then.”
Hmm…of course, we could just forget the whole Hollywood thing all together. They don’t want you to know that the video game industry is bigger than the film industry now, do they?
She has forgiven him and that takes more grace than I can muster, but a just punishment for such an atrocity is an EFFING FIRING SQUAD. Does anyone else want to take a baseball bat to every mans head that is responsible for girls in sex slavery? this situation is no different to me. effing hollywood.
I was initially pretty ticked off about this myself. Then I calmed down a bit over the last few days.
But when I saw that Debra Tate interview (at the “gulf” link above), my jaw literally dropped and my blood boiled!
Unbelievable! And scary…
A line has definitly been crossed for me.
On balance I think you were pretty restrained with the language.
I’m an admitted Michael Mann fanboy. And his catalog of work implied a moderate level of attachment to reality. There was no self-deluded naivete in films like Heat or Collateral or Public Enemies. They looked at criminals and criminal enterprises for what they were, compelling drama with frequently messy ends. If he really thinks that Roman Polanski should be released, I may have to swear off Heat and The Insider for some time to come. Scorsese is in the same boat. I expect Woody Allen to be morally obtuse. I expect Tilda Swinton to be the same. But for some reason I had hoped that Mann and Scorsese were different. That in spite of years of isolation from us folks in the “real world” they still held some connection to the cultural touchstone that binds us together as human beings. Your mileage may vary, but the “well, it’s okay to drug a 13 year old (of either gender) so that one may anally rape that 13 year old” seems out of touch to these artists.
A tangentially related comment, the nascent alt-media of PJTV, reason.tv and other libertarian/conservative internet-based media channels will eventually replace this hulk of a media system. Filmmakers with a different ideological bent from modern “Big Hollywood” are the next step int he process of creating a nouveau counter-culture, which many Americans may yet recognize as the culture the last counter-culture attempted to destroy. It’s refreshingly void of pedophile enablers.
To borrow a popular turn of phrase, faster, please!
Does anyone else want to take a baseball bat to every mans head that is responsible for girls in sex slavery?
Oh, it’ll be awhile before the head‘s turn comes…
I am fine with Polanski being incarcerated just long enough to be anally raped by a large crew of “boyfriends” in prison. I think they should ask him nicely, and when he says “no”, ignore it and proceed. With gusto. Then he can return home, to think about it. And wonder if he should be getting some blood tests.
An observation: does the opening of Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx this week help or hurt Polanski’s enablers’ case? Methinks a movie detailing a father’s pursuit of righteous vengeance for the killing of his daughter and the perversion of justice that allows one of the killers to walk bodes ill for the pack of enablers on either side of the Atlantic.
Marty, Marty, Marty. I expected better of you.
About the only excuse I can think of for some of these people is that they live in such a filtered world that they actually do not know that Roman Polanski drugged a 13 year old girl, then raped & sodomized her.
The rest, they are either incredibly naive or stupid or are suffering the effects of long term drug & alcohol abuse.
But maybe this will finally wake up people to stop listening to celebrities for political advice.
I wonder how many of the celebs who expressed outrage when Kanye West stole the spotlight from a 19-year old woman accepting a fake award are now defending a man who drugged, raped, and forcibly sodomized a 13-year old girl.
Huh. I think it’s finally time to start looking into this whole “downloading torrents” phenomenon. Either that or form a few more hobbies to replace my penchant for movie-watching.
I hate to wallow in specious conspiracy theories, but I just wonder if Dear Liar pursued the arrest now, so we’d all get fired up at the Hollywood whining rather than the Democrats’ backdooring of nazionalized health care.
And does this mean I have to go buy Jewel’s poetry book?
And does this mean I have to go buy Jewel’s poetry book?
No, it means if you ever see a couple thugs about to rape Jewel and Monica Bellucci, you help Jewel first.
People need to show they are outraged with Hollywood showing support for a child rapist in a way that will hurt Hollywood – with their money. Boycott Hollywood!!! Stop going to films. Show you are pissed and they will take notice when we aren’t paying for their lifestyles any longer. We will not support them defending a child rapist.
Better idea, instead of just boycotting, support alt-media that agrees with you. Note to Steve, I expect a cut of new subscribers at PJTV
Hmmm, this is a California case? Makes you wonder whether Ahnuld is on the celebrity free-pass bandwagon. I’m assuming the governator has executive authority to issue pardons, or clemency of some sort.
The complete list of signatories.
Notable additions: Isabelle Adjani [SCHWING!], Harrison Ford, Jeremy Irons, Natalie Portman, Steven Soderbergh, Buck Henry. I’m amazed at the number of women. And how many of these people have daughters? Question for Whoopi: if this had happened to your daughter, would it have been ‘rape-rape’?
Scanning through that, seems a preponderance of French names. But also Terry Gilliam.
I’ve dealt with these people and their kids, at a number of social events.
The kids are raised by nannies and bodyguards, while Dad dates the secretary, and Mom flies to St. Tropez with her “girlfriend”. It’s a truly different world. And they operate on the principal that “extra-ordinary people have special extra-ordinary priveledges”. So if you say a child rapist, you’re threatening their “rights” to use illegal drugs with impunity, incest (Woody Allen), etc. You view them as your equals; they don’t.
You view them as your equals
Hardly. Though if they worked really, really hard for a couple of decades….
What Whoopie might be thinking.
“It’s not RAPE rape. My god people, he bought her champagne! And freaking QUALUDES!!! That’s like, the ultimate dream date in 1977.
He just showed her how much he dug her! Because you gotta show the love if you want the love. And he showed it. That’s not rape.
You would not belive how many ludes I had to give Ted Danson before he let me go down on him! ”
If it is true that creating great art requires great suffering, by the time Mr. Polanski is out of prison, he should be able to create something really spectacular.
As a bonus, his punishment is likely to fit the crime.
This is almost enough to make me believe in karma.
MathMom,
If you think it’s just or right for Polanski to get raped, you are not much better than he is. No one deserves such treatment, and that our society wants inmates to be raped only makes our country worse. Almost all inmates are eventually released, so think about that.
I can assume also that you were joking, but it really isn’t funny anyhow. Rape is an awful crime whether it’s men in prison, women in college, old women in their homes, refugees in Africa, illegal immigrants in a Phoenix drop house, children in their own beds, or thirteen-year-olds at Hollywood parties.
Jon,
Actually, I was not joking.
#15 rbj, my understanding (which may be wrong) is that Polanski has been lobbying for years to get the charges dismissed and several months ago he got a judge to agree to a hearing on the dismissal petition, but only if Polanski appeared before the court. Polanski refused.
With that gesture, Polanski made it clear that he is still willing to abide by our justice system only when it will do his bidding, but he will not submit to decisions he doesn’t like.
The prosecutors responded, in effect, “fuck me? no, fuck you!”
Jon’s discovered that almost all inmates are serving sentences other than death, and regards this as something for other people to think about.
MathMom and McGehee,
If you think rape in prison is a good thing, you are not worth having in civilized society. You really belong with the misfits, the idiots who cannot control their anger, the morons who cannot have empathy for basic human rights and dignity, at least as far as other people are concerned. In other words, you belong in prison.
I work at one. And I can only hope that if you or anyone you love is ever there, that there will be someone who will help if victimization occurs. I hope that a full hearing of the evidence is made. And I hope that the perpetrators of any crimes get punished.
Most of the people in prison deserve punishments that we who work there are too civilized to give them. Most of the people are not deserving of even the basic services of healthcare, food, lodging, and court access that is provided to them. Many of them are not interested in anything more than getting out and making new crimes to add to their life sentences on the installment plan. But we still try to make them see the value of hard work and clean living, rather than teach them that power is all that matters. I’m proud of what I do, since I’m trying to make the world a better place. A safer place even for people like you.
Jon -
I am not in favor of prison rape. I am even less in favor of a 40+ year-old man drugging a 13-year-old and getting her drunk, then ignoring her pleas to be taken home, ignoring her when she said “no” to every sex act he proposed, doing these sex acts anyway, telling her not to tell her mother, then using his money and power to flee and keep his sorry ass safe for decades.
If he had served his term like a man in the 70′s, I would not have this opinion. Sorry, he deserves castration, but he’ll probably live out his life without ever paying society for his heinous deed. That is why I would be indifferent to Polanski being victimized by people bigger and stronger than he. He might learn something, like contrition.
Thank you for maintaining your civilized attitude while working at a prison, and keeping the world a safer place for the likes of me.
Seems to me WG is showing her true colors.
Didn’t she also give a pass to that sports guy for the dog fighting because it’s “cultural?”
Here is what I emailed earlier today to T-Mobile:
“It wasn’t rape-rape.”
-Whoopi Goldberg T-Mobile spokeswoman and co-host of The View
Dear T-Mobile
Have you no shame?
Are you seriously still running those t.v. ads with Whoopi “it wasn’t rape-rape” Goldberg?
And she is the first person we see when going to your website.
You may want to rethink your marketing on this one.
Not attached to Verizon and was a potential customer.
Nash
USA
P.S. Way to stay unaccountable – your company website has no straightforward way (this is the internet age after all) to contact you in email. Had to scour to even find this edress – mediarelations@t-mobile.com – buried in your fine print links.
You said it all and then some, Stephen.
Thank you.
Really.