Well, it was someone ELSES 13 year old daughter who was drugged and sodomized. And his brilliance as a director has to count for something. And he DID pay her a bunch of money in a civil lawsuit. A chance to show him my talents does sound appealing.
By the way, I don’t mean for my analogy to be specifically partisan. I just picked Rove because I figure I know which way the majority leans around here. For those on the other side, substitute James Carville, Rahm Emanuel or some other appropriate bugbear.
What if the reason I’d say no has nothing to do with morals or self-righteousness? Polanski does not make the kinds of movies I’d write if I were a screenwriter and does not make the kinds of films I would appear in if I were an actor.
What future employers, exactly? If you’re in the film industry, it’s already fairly well-established that you will find few who’ll be judgmental about the association.
Erm… the whole point of the OP is acknowledging that working with Polanski isn’t exactly a career-killer.
And sure, I’d ghostwrite Rove’s memoirs. It’s not an endorsement, it’s a job. Somebody’s gonna get paid to do that, might as well be me.
It depends - when in my life we talkin’? Right now, I’m 32, so yes, I probably would take the money and run. Earlier in my life, when I was younger and cuter? As a woman, probably no - ironically, then I’d be more likely to take that risk because I’d have more time to make it big in my career, but as that young woman, there’s no guarantee that he wouldn’t prey on me too.
In a heartbeat. That would be some interesting stuff.
Hey, just becuase you work for the guy doesn’t mean you have to party at Jack Nickolson’s house with him. 
Yes, I probably would have.
No, I wouldn’t. But I might make the appointment and then tell the authorities where and when he was planning to meet me. And yes, I’ve made similar decisions in my career, which might have had permanent effects (but in the end only delayed success by a bit.) I wouldn’t work with Woody Allen either.
If you lay down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas.
Yeah, I was once offered a chance to interview for an IT position at a pyramid scam company. I would not, in any way, have to do pyramid sales myself, but I refused just based on the nature of the company. And I wanted out of my then-current job very badly, and the new job was a 5 minute drive from my house.
I guess I’m an idiot for having standards of decency, and not supporting someting I think is pretty sleazy.
Polanski? I agree with TruCelt that I would contact the authorities and see if we couldn’t set up a sting. And I might kick him in the nuts a few times, just for giggles.
Yes, like how every actor and every director and producer who has worked with Polanski in the past thirty years has woken up with fleas. Ben Kingsley, Johnny Depp, Adrien Brody - they’ve all got fleas. They’ve all had their integrity destroyed by working with Roman Polanski. Right.
That’s adorable but irrelevant, since the Polanski hypothetical isn’t even in the same league - presumably neither you nor he for anyone on the project will be involved in anything illegal.
Now, if Polanski was trying to recruit you for a Ponzi movie…
Hey, I’d want to see that! A film about Charles Ponzi is way overdue, and would have the side benefit of educating the public about how Ponzi schemes work, and hopefully help them recognize the scheme when someone tries to draw them into some “multi-level marketing” bullshit.
I don’t know if a Ponzi movie in the works, but the recent bio of Ivar Kreuger- "The Swedish Match King"- has been optioned. (Being the king of the Swedish match concession is a lot more interesting than it sounds, and he was a Ponzi acolyte.)
Sorry, but yes, I’d work for Rove, and I’d work with Polanski. Why? My vocation is not my avocation. And say what you want about them, they’re masters in their fields. I don’t know if I could work with Rove, because he, much like Bono from U2, has one of those faces you just want to smash a brick into, but the educational experience would be priceless.
I’d leave as soon as I thought I’d picked up everything I could, it’s a way-station, not a career. But yes, the chance to work with a legend is worth it. They’re artists.
This company was not doing anything illegal, either. It’s still operating here in the USA and doing pretty well. I simply choose not to associate myself with people I beleive to be immoral.
I keep trying to sell out. Really. Hey, world, I’m available! Buy me!
But I’d really rather work for Roman Polanski than Karl Rove. One is a guy who fucked up his life on drugs and booze after his eight-month-pregnant wife was horribly slaughtered along with several others, then got himself straight again. The other is deliberately and rationally evil. Why would anybody pick the second over the first in a moral pissing contest?
No. (You just insulted me outside the Pit, nyah nyah na nyah nyah.)
I’ve turned down work from tobacco companies in the past, but I wasn’t starving so it’s hard to say. If I was actually starving and/or had children I couldn’t properly support, I might. Otherwise, no.
Now, what if it was a chance to work under Rembrandt, to do the covers of a tobacco package?