It’s been six days since filmmaker Roman Polanski was put in Swiss jail, detained on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice on a three-decade old unlawful sex crime that lead to his flight from the country where he has remained a fugitive ever since.
Extradition is likely in the works (the U.S. has 60 days to formally submit expatriation request and to our knowledge have not done so yet), but his lawyers have already requested his release to the Swiss government and plan to vehemently defend what they claim is an illegal detention.
Aside from a key witness dropping a shocking revelation that he lied in the documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired,” about admitting legal and ethical improprieties to the Judge in the case at the time (who is now since deceased) — potentially a huge blow to the case if it ever arrives back in the L.A. courts — it’s been all quiet on the European front for the most part.
However, French officials (Polanski has lived in the country pretty much ever since his 1978 flight from the U.S.), who seemingly rushed to his defense and then quickly took a more measured and diplomatic backstep after they were censured for defending a man who had plead guilty to an unlawful sex crime, seem to be slowly mustering the courage to endorse him once again. Or at least one French figure is and it’s evidently putting him in an awkward spot.
France’s cultural minister Frederic Mitterrand (the nephew of former French President François Mitterrand) told the French media yesterday that he is concerned Polanski will not get a fair trial if he is indeed tried in a U.S. court. “There are concerns over the absolutely incredible media lynching to which Roman Polanski was subjected 30 years ago,” he told reporters in Paris. “The manner in which the [legal] proceedings took place also raises a certain number of questions, to say the least,” he said, referring to the debate aroused in Marina Zenovich’s aforementioned 2008 documentary that suggested there had been judicial misconduct.
French officials reached out to U.S. Minister of Culture Hilary Clinton in hopes of dissuading the U.S. from pushing for extradition, but according to Reuters, on Wednesday she said it was for the courts to decide and essentially washed her hands of any involvement.
Meanwhile, Polanski is already preparing for the possibility of extradition and facing the music in U.S. courts by hiring high-profile U.S. Attorney, Reid Weingarten, who is evidently a veteran D.C. defense lawyer. The New York Times suggests the recruiting of the well-connected attorney is a indication that the defense could take a political and Washington-like angle.
On Thursday, Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County’s district attorney, ominously suggested that the U.S. courts could go back to the original rape charges in the case (as part of his plea bargain, Polanski only plead guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex). “There’s still five or six other much more serious charges pending that have yet to be resolved,” he told L.A. KCAL television, as recounted by the New York Times, “They won’t be resolved until he’s finally sentenced.”
“It’s about completing justice,” the L.A. Times quoted Cooley as saying. “Justice is not complete when someone leaves the jurisdiction of the court.”
This portentous comment will obviously make Polanski’s European lawyers fight that much harder against extradition, because if they can rehash old charges of rape, sodomy and the other immoral crimes he committed, the filmmaker could be worse off then he was in 1978.
Offering a much different perspective Australian filmmaker now based in L.A..Philippe Mora (“Communion” with Christopher Walken, anyone?), suggests that, like the original judge in the case, Laurence J. Rittenband, is a publicity hound intent on taking down celebrities.
“This is a vote-getter. Cooley has a history of pursuing celebrities; his platform for his election was that he would ‘get these people’ and show that they were not above the law. His first was Winona Ryder – eight attorneys on a shoplifting charge. Then came the prosecution of Robert Blake who many believed shot his wife — but that one failed. Then there was Phil Spector and a hung jury meant they had to go again at huge cost,” she told the Australian Age.
Additionally, it’s been pegged that Hollywood has embraced the filmmaker, but more and more U.S. celebrities are coming out of the woodwork to say, hold the phone. Chris Rock and Jay Leno both puzzled on the latter’s show about Tinsteltown’s defense of Polanski, and have joined the likes of… Kirstie Alley, Jewel and Sherri Shepherd who are all in evidently vocal opposition of the filmmaker. Ok, so it’s not the greatest or biggest group to change the overall perception. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, we too always laugh when we have to write that, geez) also said that Polanski should receive no special treatment simply because he made movies that were better than “Twins” and “Kindergarten Cop.”
Finally, the L.A. Times is now suggesting that Polanski missed his best shot at a lenient L.A. D.A.’s office in 2003 when he was poised to win the Best Director Oscar for the WWII drama, “The Pianist,” and sympathy and goodwill towards the director in the U.S. was at an all time high.
There were suggestions at the time that prosecutors might reduce his sentence to time served (42 days he spent in state prison while undergoing psychiatric evaluation in 1978). All he had to do was agree to return to a California court and face the sentencing he dodged when he got out.
Now he’s sure to be handled far less delicately. Polanski famously never appeared in person to accept his Best Director Oscar award, leaving presenter Harrison Ford to accept the honor on his behalf. Polanski received a standing ovation from most of those present in the theater after his name was announced as the prize winner.
Six months after winning his Oscar, Harrison Ford himself delivered the award to the filmmaker and in front of the media, Polanski quipped (wait for it), “Maybe we should kiss … with tongues.”
Thank God.
It's the rape charge that should have been originally charged. The lesser charge always pissed me off. I really hope he's properly charged with Rape this time, and not unlawful sex with a minor.
According to her testimony, which she has not retracted, it was indeed rape. As in, she said No and he Forced himself on her, just in case anyone was unclear on that. If you read the whole thing, it's unbelievably f*cked up. Layer after layer of f*ckery and sadness. How anyone can support him after reading her testimony is insane.
I feel really sorry for her and her kids. The whole thing is so f*cking depressing.
Ditto what Katie said. I've always been disgusted at how Hollywood treats this man. How does talent justify what he did? Hopefully more people like Chris Rock and Leno speak up.