Polanski Schmolanski

Apparently the Los Angeles justice department hasn't gotten over that fact that in 1977 Roman used his Polanski on a 13-year-old so they waited for him at an airport in Switzerland and nabbed him when he landed en route to The Zurich Film Festival at which he was to receive the Lifetime Achievement award.

32 years ago Polanski was arrested on and pleaded guilty to the charge of statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl and has since lived his life in France. His recent arrest is for fleeing before his final trial after serving 42 days in prison, but fleeing because of some judicial bologna involving a judge reneging on a plea bargain and making it known that Polanski was just going to get more jail time.

I'm not one to say, "Oh he is awesome so he shouldn't have to receive any punishment," but it's been 32 years and I'm sure it's not been something he was proud of doing. On top of his already storied past, this is one blemish that at this point should be overlooked, not only because I believe he's had time to atone for what he's done, but because the victim has publicly stated she just wants it to be over. Samantha Geimer had this to say during a 2003 interview:

"The publicity was so traumatic and so horrible his punishment was secondary to just getting this whole thing to stop. It was crazy. I never wanted him to go to jail."

I don't believe anyone should be doing anything sexual with a 13-year-old, and he should have gone to jail then, but now that she is in her 40's and perfectly capable of saying, "Guys, it's cool, I'm over it," his arrest is doing more harm than good.

Either way, I don't believe that with the amount of litigation they are going to have to go through and the heavy public outcry from Hollywood's elite against his detention that the fuzz will get him out of Switzerland. Whether or not he'll get the chance to make a film on American soil ever again is still up in the air, but something tells me we're going to get a few more years out of Roman Polanski.

Source: CNN