Still a gap between talk and action in Hollywood

AFTER the Harvey Weinstein scandal, members of the entertainment industry proclaimed there would no longer be tolerance for sexual predators. Yet the distance between the industry’s rhetoric and reality remains enormous, as the case of director Roman Polanski demonstrates.

As is well documented, Polanski pleaded guilty to “unlawful sexual intercourse” with a 13-year-old girl and then fled the country in 1978. Polanski was 43 at the time. Unlike some figures, Polanski’s crimes are not merely alleged. Beyond his guilty plea, Polanski has openly bragged about the encounter.

In his autobiography, Polanski described the encounter with the 13-year-old girl, saying there was “a certain erotic tension between us.” In an interview given after he fled the United States, Polanski was dismissive of the rape charges.

Polanski’s account differs significantly from that of his victim. In grand jury testimony, she described him giving her champagne and Quaaludes. She said Polanski ordered her to take off her clothes for pictures in a jacuzzi. When Polanski joined her, she “went up to the other end” to put distance between them. She lied and said she had asthma, “Because I wanted to get out.” When Polanski followed her into a bathroom where she was drying off, she told him she “wanted to go home because I needed to take my medicine.” She repeatedly asked to go home, later telling prosecutors she “was afraid.”

When Polanski asked if she was OK, she said, “No.” When Polanski kissed her, the girl told him “no” again and asked him to “keep away.” When he began performing sex acts on her, the girl said she was “ready to cry,” and kept telling him “no” and “stop it.” When Polanski then asked if she was on birth control and she said “no,” he instead sodomized her.

Polanski’s crime was no secret, and the details are hardly disputed. Yet Polanski has remained Hollywood royalty.

In a 2003 interview on Howard Stern’s radio show, which recently came to light again, director Quentin Tarantino blithely asserted what Polanski did was “not rape” because his victim “wanted to have it and dated the guy.”

In 2009, when Polanski was arrested in Switzerland and faced extradition to the United States, more than 100 prominent filmmakers, actors and producers signed a petition urging his release

Just last year, actor George Clooney declared it was “awful to imagine that they’re still after” Polanski given “all that this 83-year-old man has been through.” This is the same Clooney who once proudly opined in 2006 that “we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while, I think. It’s probably a good thing.”

Other women have since accused Polanski of assaulting them when they were teens. While some entertainers — Chris Rock, Kirstie Alley, Jay Leno and Stern — have courageously condemned Polanski, they still appear the exception, not the rule. So long as Hollywood continues to not only protect predators like Polanski, but support his many enablers, the industry will remain far worse than “out of touch.” And no amount of empty gestures and virtue-signaling at awards ceremonies can erase the moral stain.