Betty on the News: Celebs Support Polanksi
Hollywood liberals have found another cause to rally behind: Roman Polanski
-Margeaux Baulch Klein
From Harrison Ford and Whoopi Goldberg to Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood pals of director Roman Polanski have banded together since his arrest on Sunday to demand his release.
Polanski was on route to the Zurich Film Festival this week when Swiss police arrested him for a charge stemming from raping a California girl in the 1970s. Polanski pleased guilty to the crime in 1978, but escaped to France before he could be sentenced.
“I know it wasn’t ‘rape’ rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was ‘rape’ rape,” said Whoopi Goldberg this week on The View.
“He pled guilty to having sex with a minor and he went to jail, and when they let him out (on bail, pending sentencing), he said, ‘You know what, this guy’s going to give me 100 years in jail. I’m not staying.’ And that’s why he left,” she said, explaining her decision to support him.
“We will have to speak to our leaders … particularly in California,” wrote studio head Harvey Weinstein in an op-ed in the UK’s Independent. “I’m not too shy to go and talk to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and to ask him once and for all to look at this.” (Fox News)