Free Republic

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership ranks. The decision to remove Cosby and Polanski from the membership was made Tuesday, May 1 at a scheduled board meeting. The move comes a week after Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault brought against him by Andrea Constand. Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by as many as 60 women, a few of which testified at the emotional hearing. Polanski has been on the lam for 40...

How the social justice mob decides who goes down, and who doesn't. About a year ago, I was at one of those elitist dinner parties that the talk-radio guys are always going on about, albeit in the Swiss Alps rather than inside the Beltway—how’s that for one-upmanship? It was a very agreeable gathering at the end of a practically unimprovable week, but toward the end of the evening, an unexpected (by me, anyway) guest appeared: Roman Polanski. That presented a dilemma both ethical and etiquettical. Does one meet Roman Polanski? Shake hands? Exchange pleasantries? Put on my critic’s hat and...

Just days after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Roman Polanski from its ranks, the director's attorney sent a letter to the organization Tuesday morning, arguing the move was unlawful and threatening to take legal action if Polanski is not granted a hearing. In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, Polanski's attorney, Harland Braun, said the academy had failed to follow both its own rules and California law in denying the Oscar-winning director a chance to present his own case. "We are not here contesting the merits of the expulsion...

Following Dylan Farrow’s harrowing letter describing sexual molestation she says she suffered from father Woody Allen – her brother Moses is speaking out to defend Allen, accusing their mother Mia of poisoning them against their father. Responding to accusation first made 20 years ago that has bitterly divided the family, Moses accused Mia Farrow of turning him and Dylan against Allen as revenge for his affair with Soon-Yi. “Of course Woody did not molest my sister,” says Moses, who is estranged from Mia Farrow and remains close to Allen and Soon-Yi. “My mother drummed it into me to hate my...

Last night, the Academy Awards had an opportunity to have a Defining Moment. Hollywood had a chance to say something powerful, but the moment was lost. You might think I'm speaking about the current military action, where we're stumblingly thumping Iraq into submission, but I'm not. Michael Moore grabbed the moment to spout something about the war, but -- whether I agree with him or not -- I found his approach to dissent tacky and ill-timed. I sincerely hope none of the parents of dead or captured American soldiers saw his petulant 'attempted rant.' (Thank god Peter O'Toole, former inveterate...

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house.

Roman Polanski said Monday he was in a "state of shock" when he read ..... in Vanity Fair magazine alleging he tried to seduce a woman while on his way to his slain wife's funeral in 1969. The film director, at times choking with emotion, spoke to a packed London court via video link from Paris, the first libel claimant to use such technology...... Polanski was speaking from Paris to avoid the risk of extradition from Britain to the US, where he is wanted after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. He cannot be extradited...

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanksi from its membership ranks. The move comes a week after Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault brought against him by Andrea Constand, and after disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was first expelled from the organization last year. Polanski has been on the lam for 40 years, ever since fleeing the country while awaiting sentencing for statutory rape in 1978. The decision to remove Cosby and Polanski from the membership was made Tuesday,...

Quentin Tarantino has apologized to Samantha Geimer after suggesting that she wanted to have sex with Roman Polanski when she was 13. SNIIP Facing an online backlash, Tarantino has changed his position and called his remarks “cavalier.” “Fifteen years later, I realize how wrong I was,” Tarantino said. “Ms. Geimer WAS raped by Roman Polanski.” SNIP

Amid controversy over Uma Thurman’s near-fatal “Kill Bill” stunt, a 15-year-old interview with Quentin Tarantino went viral online Monday. The 2003 Howard Stern interview included an almost eight-minute defense of Roman Polanski by the famous director. “He didn’t rape a 13-year-old. It was statutory rape. It’s not the same thing. He had sex with a minor. That’s not rape. To me, when you use the word rape, you’re talking about violent, throwing them down...it’s like one of the most violent crimes in the world,” Tarantino told the shock jock. “You can’t throw the word ‘rape’ around. It’s like throwing the...

Los Angeles detectives said Tuesday they are investigating a woman’s claim that Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski molested her in 1975, when she was 10 years old. But the allegations are so old that criminal charges couldn’t be brought, even if proven. Although the statute of limitations has long expired, law enforcement officials may be able to use any evidence they collect to help prosecute other cases. Authorities are now probing the case because Los Angeles detectives “will always take a report from any victim and then determine if the case is within the statute of limitations,” police spokesman Josh Rubenstein...

Madman, murderer,songwriter. Some links below

I spoke to Harvey Weinstein on Monday night. 'Harvey…how's your life?' I asked, winning myself the Most Stupid Question of the Year Award. He sighed loudly, paused for a second or two, then chuckled, wryly. 'My life? It's really not that great right now to be honest, Piers…' At the time, he was still fighting to save his movie mogul career, and his marriage, after the New York Times bombshell report disclosing he had paid off eight women for sexual harassment. Weinstein asked to go off-the-record, and we talked for another minute or so before I heard urgent mutterings and...

German actress Renate Langer is now 61-years-old but she claims Roman Polanski raped her twice in 1972 when she was a 15-year-old student. Langer made a formal complaint with Swiss police last month. From the NY Times: By her account, she was introduced to Mr. Polanski after she began working for a modeling agency in Munich in high school and said she had traveled to visit him in Gstaad, with the permission of her parents, because he had indicated an interest in casting her in a movie.Mr. Polanski, she said, raped her in a bedroom of his home, and...

Another woman has come forward to say she was sexually molested in the 1970s by the film director Roman Polanski. The woman, named only as Robin, told a news conference that the alleged attack happened in 1973 when she was 16. She is the third woman to accuse Polanski of child abuse. He fled the US in 1978 after admitting statutory rape of a 13 year old.

A Los Angeles County judge has denied the latest effort by filmmaker Roman Polanski to resolve his 40-year-old statutory rape case. In a written decision handed down Monday, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon echoed rulings by previous judges in the case, saying that Polanski’s “motions and corresponding requests are denied.” But the judge has agreed to a hearing later this month to consider a controversial piece of testimony that the filmmaker is seeking to unseal. In recent court filings and at a court hearing in March, Polanski asked to be sentenced in absentia, arguing that he has already...

Roman Polanski will come back to a California courtroom to face the judge over his fugitive status in his child rape case, but only if the judge says in advance that the director served his full time behind bars.

Fugitive director Roman Polanski will reportedly attempt to have his decades-long child rape case resolved so that he may return to the United States without fear of arrest or incarceration. According to TMZ, the 83-year-old director’s attorney, Harland Braun, has asked a Los Angeles judge to review what it reports is a “long-secret transcript” of the prosecutor’s testimony during Polanski’s trial. The attorney claims the transcript proves that the Pianist director had agreed to a plea deal to serve just 48 days in jail, and that the judge had agreed to the deal. Polanski was convicted of raping a child...

The award-winning director has been wanted in the US for decades after admitting to sex with a minor. Mr Polanski, now 83, fled ahead of his sentencing for statutory rape in 1978. The Cesars have defended their choice, praising the director as an "insatiable aesthete". His role in the 2017 awards has outraged women right's groups, who have called for a boycott of next month's televised ceremony

Poland's Supreme Court rejected a government request to return the extradition case of filmmaker Roman Polanski to a Krakow court. "Even if we agree with certain views contained in the appeal, we found that the ruling issued by the Krakow Court didn't violate the law," Judge Michal Laskowski said Tuesday. Polanski, a French-Polish director who is Jewish, fled the United States nearly four decades ago after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl. An October 2015 ruling in a Krakow court blocked his extradition. Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro said the ruling violated Poland’s extradition agreements with the U.S. Ziobro said...