Patterico's Pontifications

10/14/2009

Your Daily Polanski Report

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:42 am



Calvin Trillin explains elites’ love for Polanski in poetry:

Why make him into some Darth Vader
For sodomizing one eighth grader?
. . . .
Celebrities would just be fools
To play by little people’s rules.
So Roman’s banner we unfurl.
He only raped one little girl.

Mick LaSalle says you’re upset at Polanski, not because he drugged and sodomized a 13-year-old, but because you’re jealous of him:

I don’t know what makes him so unworthy of compassion in other people’s eyes. But the first things I think of, and I could be wrong, are the beautiful wife, the internationally lauded career, the lifetime of accomplishment. Those sorts of things can inspire hostility even when the person isn’t a fugitive, so it’s the first thing I notice . . . that he’s a celebrity.

No? This really has absolutely nothing to do with it?

OK, if you say so.

Here’s one aspect of his life I’m not jealous of. Polanski is finishing his current movie from prison:

Roman Polanski is attempting to complete his film “The Ghost” from his jail cell in Zurich, where he faces extradition to the U.S. in connection with a three-decade-old sexual-assault case involving a 13-year-old girl.

Richard Harris, a longtime Polanski collaborator and co-writer of “The Ghost” screenplay, said at Britain’s Cheltenham Literature Festival that the director was working on the film, including communicating with the film’s composer.

“I don’t think he can make phone calls,” Harris told The Guardian. “But he can communicate.”

Tap three times if you want to keep the scene where Pierce Brosnan French-kisses Ewan McGregor. Four times if you want to cut it. Gunter will pass the message to Hans who will tell his girlfriend Hilda during visiting hours.

Filming in prison is nothing new for Polanski, apparently. Remember that 42-day stretch he did in Chino? The one where everybody was confused about why he got released early — and some wags had joked that he had promised them parts in one of his movies? Seems they weren’t that far off:

ROMAN POLANSKI’S 42 days in the Chino prison from December 1977 to January 1978 were recounted here the other day, prompting a note from a prison employee at the time (whom I know) with a fascinating insider story.

It seems that during Polanski’s stay, the director of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” didn’t get rusty. He was enlisted to help make – why not? – a Department of Corrections training film.

The prison’s training manager was assigned to produce a film about prison gangs for department use.

“The training manager got the bright idea that Roman Polanski would be a great help in the production and direction of this film,” my source says.

. . . .

“He would shout out orders to some really heavy-duty gang characters – allowed out of cells only one at a time – to `stand this way’ or `suck in that gut,’ and all sorts of personal comments and commands. And the gang members, clearly starstruck by being on camera, meekly complied!

“Polanski probably weighed 115 pounds and was 5-foot-1 or 5-foot-2. The gang guys were 6-foot-2 and taller and 250 to 300 pounds of bench-pressed, tattooed and battle-scarred muscle! Our officers could not have ordered these particular inmates around with this much authority or cooperation – but that is the magic of show biz, I guess.”

Sounds like hell. And finally, what controversy would be complete without the race card?

“I have no sympathy for him. He’s in jail. Three hots and a cot, that’s what you’re supposed to get,” said Star Jones on “The Insider.” “Something tells me Spike Lee would not have been allowed to chill in France for the last three decades had he admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old.”

Jones went on to say, “Roman Polanski is very much loved by the Hollywood industry and they are out there putting petitions together . . . Because he is white and he is rich, he was privileged.”

*

9 Responses to “Your Daily Polanski Report”

  1. Bohemian Rhapsody

    But Im just a poor boy and nobody loves me-
    Hes just a poor boy from a poor family-
    Spare him his life from this monstrosity-
    Easy come easy go-,will you let me go-
    Bismillah! no-,we will not let you go-let him go-
    Bismillah! we will not let you go-let him go
    Bismillah! we will not let you go-let me go
    Will not let you go-let me go
    Will not let you go let me go
    No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
    Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me go-
    Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-

    Neo (7830e6)

  2. Star Jones is definitely right about if Spike Lee had banged a 13 year old white girl, and probably right if he had banged a 13 year old black girl. Especially at the time Polanski got his rape on. It was a very racisty era.

    Star Jones is an annoying shallow tv douchebag though so maybe someone else could get her point across more better.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  3. Jones went on to say, “Roman Polanski is very much loved by the Hollywood industry and they are out there putting petitions together . . . Because he is white and he is rich, he was privileged.”

    But what aspect of a person is far, far more crucial than his race or ethnicity? His or her politics.

    If Polanski were a conservative, or had the history of Elia Kazan, a lot of Hollywood “leftys” would be at the front door of the jailhouse trying to push him in. Even if he were a staunch centrist, a lot of limousine liberals throughout Hollywood probably would be stiffling yawns over his arrest.

    And if Polanski were of the race and ideology of, say, Clarence Thomas, folks like Star Jones likely would be responding to his circumstances with a shrug and a comment of “c’est la vie, baby!”

    Mark (411533)

  4. Tap three times if you want to keep the scene where Pierce Brosnan French-kisses Ewan McGregor. Four times if you want to cut it. Gunter will pass the message to Hans who will tell his girlfriend Hilda during visiting hours.

    The film will be completed and no one will be able to figure out in which order the reels are supposed to be run. Polanski will wish he had stocked up on cartons of cigs when he went into the joint.

    MU789 (3f9d29)

  5. Wow–the race card–I didn’t see that one coming.

    Rochf (ae9c58)

  6. Lemme guess: A remake of “Bonfire of the Vanities”?

    mojo (8096f2)

  7. Let’s see now, Whoopie thinks Polanski should get off because he’s rich and makes movies, and didn’t really/really rape/rape a 13 year old. But Star thinks Polanski has already got off easy, or will, because he’s a rich movie maker and he’s white. Ya follow?

    Now, Cold Cash Jefferson got off easy because he was rich and a black Democrat, same goes for Charlie Rangle. Yet, Clinton got off because he was a rich Democrat and was the first Black President even though he was white. Humm, this is getting murky.

    The Marc Rich case is a bit different. He got off because he was a rich white Democrat. His wife who had big tits hung out with Bill Clinton. She not only handed over a ton of dirty money, she also threw in a few special saxes just to sweeten the deal. Boy, that Bill Clinton is one bad dog, nose like a vacuum cleaner, and says he doesn’t know what “is” means. But he’s a heck of a rogue, ya just got to love the guy, but don’t trust him with your wallet or your wife, he bites, and if they don’t go down easy he sends them home scuffed up.

    Humm…I’m getting confused, you too I bet. Well, I guess Obama could clear up all this confusion if he’d just go ahead and lynch Rush Limbaugh, or at least toss his fat backside into some tiny little jail cell. You know, get ACORN to make him eat nothing but crow and broccoli, and no matter what, never never let him watch football on TV. That would teach him to shut his yap.

    Why not? Rush’s obviously guilty of being white and he’s rich enough to buy a football team. Besides lots of folks don’t like what he has to say, and a good many of them think he’s used up all his First Amendment rights anyway.

    I bet Whoopie would go along with it, so would 99% of the antique media and about the same percentage of minorities, child molesters, union fatcats, college professors, and Hollywood scum too. I’m unsure about mainstream Democrats or even if they’re allowed to admit to having opinions.

    ropelight (8dcd85)

  8. “White” isn’t useful to Roman Polanski. But with the Hollywood crowd his Jewish / Holocaust ticket is probably doing him some good.

    David Blue (f3d67c)

  9. The retort to Star Jones could have been, “Maybe, but if both Spike Lee and Roman Polanski had killed cops or ex-wives and waiters, Lee would have an entire socio-political movement proclaiming his innocence and Polanski would be left to go quietly to the gallows.”

    JVW (8706ba)


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