# What celebrities have spoken out AGAINST Roman Polanski? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227 "2009-10-01T13:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/61 "2009-10-05T11:10:56Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > [Actually, here is the real right wing position on the issue.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/04/cokie-roberts-on-polanski_n_309084.html) > > So now the left can safely condemn a child rapist without appearing too conservative. So Cokie Roberts is now the arbiter of the conservative position? I musta missed that memo. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/62 "2009-10-05T12:44:31Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Most of the people defending Polanski are outside Hollywood. Who are some of them? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/63 "2009-10-05T13:54:46Z")
The country of France, for one. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/64 "2009-10-05T14:25:53Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > So Cokie Roberts is now the arbiter of the conservative position? I musta missed that memo. But the cite had a picture of George Will\* on it. Regards, Shodan \*Or looked like him at least. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/65 "2009-10-05T14:55:26Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Worse, yes, but she didn’t even present the statutory rape in her play as bad at all. Well, so what? It’s a play, not real life. And if it was taken from a real instance, again so what? It’s still a play. You think the writers of \*Dexter \* think serial killers are A-OK? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/66 "2009-10-05T15:17:47Z")
I’m not sure looking to Eve Ensler’s plays to support or contradict her political opinions is any more useful than looking at Polanski’s work (some of which includes rape and is somewhat sympathetic to rape victims) to support or condemn him. ETA As **Grumman** points out, this needn’t even turn to a debate about statutory rape or the age of consent. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/67 "2009-10-05T16:14:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > How are Ensler’s stories comparable to Polanski’s deeds? Her play contains a positive depiction of the alcohol aided rape of a 14 year old child by an adult. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/68 "2009-10-05T18:04:52Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Well, so what? It’s a play, not real life. And if it was taken from a real instance, again so what? It’s still a play. You think the writers of \*Dexter \* think serial killers are A-OK? I would also guess that Johnny Cash didn’t believe it was right to shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/69 "2009-10-05T18:24:48Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Obviously, there’s a difference between a play about something, and doing it for real, but I do think Ensler is being just a tad hypocritical in that she wrote a play which romanticizes and glorifies the statutory rape of a child by a woman, but excoriates the same act she depicts as positive when it’s performed by a woman as an atrocity when perormed by a man. Based on the way the piece came out, maybe the woman Ensler interviewed did not feel victimized by that encounter. I don’t like Ensler and I’m not a fan of the show, but maybe she depicted the situation as it really was and how the woman involved really felt about it in retrospect. I agree that the monologue is creepy and that it comes off as a positive depiction of the encounter itself. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/70 "2009-10-05T18:27:19Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Who are some of them? Isabelle Adjani, Fatih Akin, Stephane Allagnon, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Alexandre Arcady, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Antoine Aronin, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Alexander Astruc, Gabriel Auer, Paul Auster, Luc Barnier, Christophe Barratier, Morgane Beauverger, Xavier Beauvois, Liria Begeja, Gilles Behat, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Marco Bellochio, Candice Belaisch-Goldchmit, Monica Bellucci, Yamina Benguigui, Djamel Bennecib, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Patrick Bouchitey, Paul Boujenah, Jacques Bral, Patrick Braoudé, Pascal Bruckner, André Buytaers, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-Michel Carre, Mathieu Celary, Patrice Chéreau, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cissé, Jessika Cohen, Philippe Corbé, Alain Corneau, Jérôme Cornuau, Miguel Courtois, Dominique Crevecoeur, Alfonso Cuaron, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Jean-Paul Dayan, Katarina De Meulder, Jonathan Demme, Alexandre Desplat, Rosalinde et Michel Deville, Arielle Dombasle, Georges Dybman, Jacques Fansten, Joël Farges, Gianluca Farinelli (Cinémathèque de de Bologne), Nathalie Faucheux, Etienne Faure, Michel Ferry, Corinne Figuet, Pierre Forciniti, Scott Foundas, Stephen Frears, Thierry Frémaux, Sam Gabarski, René Gainville, Louis Garrel, Tony Gatlif, Albert Gauvin, Costa Gavras, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Terry Gilliam, Christian Gion, Johanna Gozlan, Marc Guidoni, Taylor Hackford, Buck Henry, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Davide Homitsu Riboli, Robert Hossein, Jean-Loup Hubert, Isabelle Huppert, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Just Jaeckin, Alain Jessua, Pierre Jolivet, Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation), Neil Jordan, Roger Kahane, Thierry Kamami, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Waï, Ladislas Kijno, Harmony Korinne, Jan Kounen, Milan Kundera, Diane Kurys, Emir Kusturica, Gaelle Lancien, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, André Larquié, Vinciane Lecocq, Patrice Leconte, Claude Lelouch, Gérard Lenne, Bernard-Henri Lévy, David Lynch, Michael Mann, François Margolin, Jean-PierreMarois, Tonie Marshall, Mario Martone, Nicolas Mauvernay, Sam Mendes, Camille Meyer, Radu Mihaileanu, Claude Miller, Patrick Mimouni, Yann Moix, Mario Monicelli, Jeanne Moreau, Mike Nichols, Sandra Nicolier, Marie Nieves Perez Neël, Michel Ocelot, Alexander Payne, Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY), Michele Placido, Philippe Radault, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Raphael Rebibo, Yasmina Reza, Jacques Richard, Laurence Roulet, Salman Rushdie, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salomé, Marc Sandberg, Carine Sarna, Ysabelle Saura Del Pan, Jerry Schatzberg, Julian Schnabel, Barbet Schroeder, Ettore Scola, Martin Scorsese, William Shawcross, Charlotte Silvera, Abderrahmane Sissako, Olivier Soares Barbosa, Steven Soderbergh, Paolo Sorrentino, Guillaume Stirn, Tilda Swinton, Nil Symchowicz, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Radovan Tadic, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, Cécile Telerman, Alain Terzian, Pascal Thomas, Danièle Thompson, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Nadine Trintignant, Tom Tykwer, Alexandre Tylski, Betrand Van Effenterre, Eugenia Varela Navarro, Diane von Furstenberg, Margaret Walker, Wim Wenders, Elsa Zylberstein. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/71 "2009-10-05T18:48:15Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Isabelle Adjani, Fatih Akin, Stephane Allagnon, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Alexandre Arcady, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Antoine Aronin, Darren Aronofsky, Olivier Assayas, Alexander Astruc, Gabriel Auer, Paul Auster, Luc Barnier, Christophe Barratier, Morgane Beauverger, Xavier Beauvois, Liria Begeja, Gilles Behat, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Marco Bellochio, Candice Belaisch-Goldchmit, Monica Bellucci, Yamina Benguigui, Djamel Bennecib, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Patrick Bouchitey, Paul Boujenah, Jacques Bral, Patrick Braoudé, Pascal Bruckner, André Buytaers, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-Michel Carre, Mathieu Celary, Patrice Chéreau, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cissé, Jessika Cohen, Philippe Corbé, Alain Corneau, Jérôme Cornuau, Miguel Courtois, Dominique Crevecoeur, Alfonso Cuaron, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Jean-Paul Dayan, Katarina De Meulder, Jonathan Demme, Alexandre Desplat, Rosalinde et Michel Deville, Arielle Dombasle, Georges Dybman, Jacques Fansten, Joël Farges, Gianluca Farinelli (Cinémathèque de de Bologne), Nathalie Faucheux, Etienne Faure, Michel Ferry, Corinne Figuet, Pierre Forciniti, Scott Foundas, Stephen Frears, Thierry Frémaux, Sam Gabarski, René Gainville, Louis Garrel, Tony Gatlif, Albert Gauvin, Costa Gavras, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Terry Gilliam, Christian Gion, Johanna Gozlan, Marc Guidoni, Taylor Hackford, Buck Henry, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Davide Homitsu Riboli, Robert Hossein, Jean-Loup Hubert, Isabelle Huppert, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Just Jaeckin, Alain Jessua, Pierre Jolivet, Kent Jones (World Cinema Foundation), Neil Jordan, Roger Kahane, Thierry Kamami, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Waï, Ladislas Kijno, Harmony Korinne, Jan Kounen, Milan Kundera, Diane Kurys, Emir Kusturica, Gaelle Lancien, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, André Larquié, Vinciane Lecocq, Patrice Leconte, Claude Lelouch, Gérard Lenne, Bernard-Henri Lévy, David Lynch, Michael Mann, François Margolin, Jean-PierreMarois, Tonie Marshall, Mario Martone, Nicolas Mauvernay, Sam Mendes, Camille Meyer, Radu Mihaileanu, Claude Miller, Patrick Mimouni, Yann Moix, Mario Monicelli, Jeanne Moreau, Mike Nichols, Sandra Nicolier, Marie Nieves Perez Neël, Michel Ocelot, Alexander Payne, Richard Pena (Directeur Festival de NY), Michele Placido, Philippe Radault, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Raphael Rebibo, Yasmina Reza, Jacques Richard, Laurence Roulet, Salman Rushdie, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salomé, Marc Sandberg, Carine Sarna, Ysabelle Saura Del Pan, Jerry Schatzberg, Julian Schnabel, Barbet Schroeder, Ettore Scola, Martin Scorsese, William Shawcross, Charlotte Silvera, Abderrahmane Sissako, Olivier Soares Barbosa, Steven Soderbergh, Paolo Sorrentino, Guillaume Stirn, Tilda Swinton, Nil Symchowicz, Jean-Charles Tacchella, Radovan Tadic, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, Cécile Telerman, Alain Terzian, Pascal Thomas, Danièle Thompson, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Nadine Trintignant, Tom Tykwer, Alexandre Tylski, Betrand Van Effenterre, Eugenia Varela Navarro, Diane von Furstenberg, Margaret Walker, Wim Wenders, Elsa Zylberstein. When you said “outside Hollywood” I just took it to mean people outside the entertainment industry, not everyone who physically resides outside Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/72 "2009-10-05T18:48:25Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > So Cokie Roberts is now the arbiter of the conservative position? I musta missed that memo. I didn’t know she was conservative in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/73 "2009-10-05T18:53:55Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Who are some of them? > [@joebuck20](#): > > When you said “outside Hollywood” I just took it to mean people outside the entertainment industry, not everyone who physically resides outside Hollywood. So “Hollywood” equals the worldwide entertainment industry? That’s a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/74 "2009-10-05T19:23:25Z")
According to the WSJ, Harvey Weinsten refered to it as the “so called crime”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/75 "2009-10-05T19:46:03Z")
> [@Belowjob2.0](#): > > Her play contains a positive depiction of the alcohol aided rape of a 14 year old child by an adult. Except that, in Ensler’s case, it’s the “victim” who is arguing that what happened to her was a positive thing. I’m curious, if Ensler is on the hook for reporting this story, how are we to regard the person with whom it originated? ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/76 "2009-10-05T20:46:25Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Except that, in Ensler’s case, it’s the “victim” who is arguing that what happened to her was a positive thing. I’m curious, if Ensler is on the hook for reporting this story, how are we to regard the person with whom it originated? With skepticism. Ensler would never include a story about a girl who was terrified and disgusted when an adult gave her booze and molested her, unless the adult was a man. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/77 "2009-10-06T02:46:15Z")
The point is that it’s not members of the American entertainment industry that are supporting Polanski. It now appears that more members of the American entertainment industry have spoken out against Polanski than have spoken in favor of him. In any case the entertainers who have spoken in favor of Polanski are clearly mostly foreigners. They appear to be mostly French, in fact. If I were to guess, I would say that their attitude is “How dare the Americans interfere with a French citizen about something that happened in the U.S. thirty-one years ago?” (AND NOTE THAT I’M NOT CLAIMING THAT I AGREE WITH THEM.) The claim that this protest against the extradiction of Polanski has anything to do with “Hollywood” strikes me as deliberately obscuring what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/78 "2009-10-06T05:14:10Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The claim that this protest against the extradiction of Polanski has anything to do with “Hollywood” strikes me as deliberately obscuring what’s going on. The most powerful names on the list of supporters _are_ Hollywood elite. Many may not be American, but they are names that carry clout in Hollywood _as well as_ the European entertainment scenes. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/79 "2009-10-06T07:03:01Z")
Yes, if you disregard those who have nothing to do with Hollywood and those who are not “elite,” everyone left is a member of the Hollywood elite. How many is that? How does that compare to the number of members of the Hollywood elite who did not sign the petition? ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227/80 "2009-10-06T09:36:48Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Yes, if you disregard those who have nothing to do with Hollywood and those who are not “elite,” everyone left is a member of the Hollywood elite. How many is that? How does that compare to the number of members of the Hollywood elite who did not sign the petition? That’s irrelevant to the argument. **Wendell Wagner** said that suggesting that this has _anything_ to do with Hollywood is _deliberately obscuring_ what’s going on. I would like to know how a movement that’s being spearheaded _in the U.S._ by Harvey Weinstein and Martin Scorcese, with aid by Woody Allen and Hollywood darlings Ethan Coen, Darren Aronofsky and Sam Mendes (though the last is not American he’s worked exclusively through Hollywood studios) could **not** have _something_ to do with Hollywood. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-celebrities-have-spoken-out-against-roman-polanski/512227.md?page=5)