The Brotherhood of Fame & Polanski

Lately, I've been too tired & busy to post about politics, media, celebrity or even Palin. But I have been reading about all of those things on various web sites.  Tonight, I read a number of op-ed pieces regarding the Polanski extradition.  I haven't been able to make sense of the arguments by his supporters to let him off the hook. Yesterday Michael Seitzman posted an article in response to an article defending Polanski.  It was a good response, but I think that the articles by Judge H. Less Sarokin and Eve Ensler better articulate the reasons for extraditing Polanski. 

Like Keli Goff, I generally ignored claims that Hollywood is run by the liberal elite in part because I didn't understand these claims and in part because I don't care who runs Hollywood. I care about who runs Lansing and who run D.C.  Actors, directors, producers can all support who they want, make crazy statements all they want.  For the most part, they live in a bubble and I don't take what they have to say too seriously.  Some of them remember what it is like out here for the rest of us outside of their bubble and are able to articulate coherent, logical opinions.  Sometimes, even logical, coherent opinions that I disagree with. 

But now, we have these "Hollywood Elites" running around saying, well, it was a long time ago and it wasn't that bad.  It is as if they have forgotten they are talking about the drugging and rape of a 13 year old girl. Keli is right, this is why people don't like the "Hollywood Elite".  Frankly, this Polanski business isn't about liberals. It is a group of people who think that the law doesn't apply to them.  They don't have to follow the usual rules.  This belief is not limited to liberals.  Roman Polanski may have had a crappy hand dealt to him.  Lots of people have and most of them don't drug and rape 13 year old girls in response. Eve Ensler says is better than I just did when she says:

No one is arguing the genius of Roman Polanski, or even the pain and tragedy of his difficult life. But in the end, that has nothing to do with the crime he committed. Being an artist does not make any of us exempt from the laws of humanity -- in fact, it actually makes us more responsible to them.

Quoting Keli Goff's article:

Hollywood hypocrisy is one thing when it takes the form of a celebrity touting their environmental consciousness while globetrotting in a fuel-guzzling private jet (ahem, Madonna.) But when people like Mr. Weinstein, who supports a plethora of liberal candidates, and was the producing arm behind Michael Moore's iconic, cinematic Bush takedown "Fahrenheit 9/11," seem content to paint the former president as harmful to Americans but Roman Polanski as merely misunderstood, they are proving Sarah Palin and every other anti-Hollywood conservative's point for them.

So read the articles I link to, they are better written than this rant.  I probably could have just said, folks, remove heads from asses, Polanski pled guilty to "engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" - he drugged and raped a 13 year old child. It is time for him to face the consequences.