Debbie Schlussel: Bizarre Brit Treatment for Child Rapist Hollywood Director

By Debbie Schlussel

Boy, the Brits are odd. They welcome radical Muslims into their midst and protect them. Then, they are surprised when radical Muslims blow up London.

Then, there's Roman Polanski. He's the director who fled the U.S. after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 (at Jack Nicholson's home). In those days, that was really a crime. Today, it's the way to get the #1 CD on the charts--ie., R. Kelly. Polanski lives in France, where he is free from extradition to the U.S. and won't have to face justice.

Polanski is suing Vanity Fair for defamation about the rape and his other sexual exploits after his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Charles Manson followers. The rub is that Polanski is suing the magazine in Britain. He won't appear there in person, because he doesn't want the Brits to extradite him to the U.S. Yet, the Brits are allowing him to proceed with his suit, via video teleconference.

What good is an extradition treaty with Britain, if it allows Plaintiffs to benefit from their legal system, when it benefits them, but evade it (ie., extradition), when it does not? If this is par for the British course--and it seems to be--you can't help but feel that they bring things upon themselves with their ludicrous sense of fair play. Especially when it comes to the U.S. and western interests.

Then there is the question of how a man who raped a young girl, pled guilty to it, and fled justice, has the chutzpah to pursue a defamation claim regarding his sex life. Hello?! . . . .

And his bringing up the Holocaust to justify his unseemly life is just beyond disgusting. He gets away with it, though, because as a liberal Hollywoodite, even if a fugitive escapee to France, he's part of the immune class.

Posted by Debbie on July 18, 2005 02:21 PM to Debbie Schlussel