Hollywood Mores and the Madness of Roman Polanski

Forget that Roman Polanski sodomized a 13 year old girl. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski plied a 13 year old girl with alcohol and Quaaludes, and then sodomized her – twice. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski sodomized a 13 year old girl after she said no. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski presents a compelling life story. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski survived the Holocaust. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski’s beautiful wife and unborn child were brutally murdered by Charles Manson and his followers. Polanski pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski is an artiste. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski is an artist. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski is an auteur. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski won an Oscar. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski faced 6 felony counts. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski felt 42 days was sufficient punishment for sodomizing a non-consenting 13 year old girl. He fled.

Forget that Roman Polanski fled the United States into the comfort and solace of 15 year old Nastassja Kinski. He pled guilty.

Forget that Roman Polanski entered into a $500,000 settlement with his victim, and then tried to stiff her on the payment.

130 Hollywood luminaries are willing to forget that Roman Polanski is a pedophile who sodomized a non-consenting 13 year old girl, pled guilty, and then fled to Europe. They want mercy for the fleeing felon.

Among the 130 is Woody Allen. Enough said.

Hollywood has its own set of mores and values.

I like to believe that most members of the Hollywood community lead quiet, normal family lives, just like the rest of us, unlike some of their flamboyant colleagues.

Some humans respond poorly to sudden fame, fortune, wealth, and power. Many of these are Hollywood celebrities, who with no discernable talent except to read lines or sing a song, have catapulted to exalted positions of prominence, engage in drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and serial divorces.

Some celebrities engage in the same double standards and hypocrisy as some politicians. Both can sometimes be amoral or immoral.

Whoopi Goldberg’s quote that Roman Polanski’s act did not constitute “rape-rape” illustrates the same definitional ambiguity of President Clinton who claimed that oral sex was not sex. Oral sex and sodomy are sex within the penal code of every jurisdiction.

Thank you Chris Rock for speaking out against Whoopi.

Hollywood, where one of its most hallowed traditions is the casting couch.

Hollywood’s mores are such that drug overdoses are an occupational hazard. Think John Belushi, River Phoenix, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, Judy Garland, Dana Plato, Chris Farley, Anna Nicole Smith, not to mention Brian Epstein, Janet Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Keith Moon, Sid Vicious, Ike Turner, Dinah Washington, and DJ AM.

Michael Douglas once made the interesting confession that he “was addicted to sex,” an addiction claim subsequently echoed by David Duchovny.

And some engage in bizarre relationships. Both Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn liked underage women, but neither pled guilty to statutory rape. Michael Jackson may have been a pedophile, but he never pled guilty.

Hollywood, like the academy and media, are politically far to the left of the American people. And yet this time none of the others of the Chattering Class are supporting Roman Polanski. Editorial writers and columnists display no sympathy for the fleeing felon.

Perhaps some of the Hollywood are living in a cocoon divorced from reality, perhaps some are incredibly naïve, and perhaps some are just dim bulbs.

Let Harvey Weinstein and his fellow signers petition Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a veteran of Hollywood mores, into pardoning Roman Polanski.