Forget it, Steve. It's Chinatown.

"Read Polanski's super long and whiny press release after the jump" just wasn't a very tempting offer.

Where do the asterisks in his press release point? Anywhere important?

Hope he finally gets locked up.

I agree, all child rappers should be sent to prison.

Sounds like LA screwed the original pooch. I've heard that before. Oh well. Moral of the story: don't rape kids.

Getting screwed and he doesn't want to be. Huh.

But he's partly right.

I'm not going to deny I'm a fan of his work. At the same time, something certainly did happen, and he should have answered for it. It would have been nice had justice been served, and he served his time. By now, he would have long made penance for his crime, and he could have gone back to making movies here in America.

However, as mentioned above, L.A. screwed the pooch. They know they screwed the pooch. Everything points to this case needing a retrial, but LA knows that because of everything that has happened in the past 30 years, a retrial doesn't stand much chance of convicting him. So there trying to cling to the past guilty plea and to sentence him on that. But the only reason he pleaded guilty was because of the plea bargain.

It be nice if justice was served, but as of right now, the case being thrown out is the better of two bad options. It at least preserves some integrity of the court by admitting where mistakes were made. And yes, at this point, this case is largely about publicity, not about justice.

Or lets forget rationality, stick to mob hysteria, and string up the lecherous Jew. That'll be easier. And then we can forget about it by reading the latest news about Justin Beiber, or going to the movies and fawning over Hit-Girl.

Don't you DARE bring Justin Bieber into this!

I didn't think I could think much worse of the guy, but there ya go.

Maybe should have remained silent.

I'd like to see what most of Polanski's detractors would do if their wives were killed by Charles Manson cultists while 8 months pregnant.

Not defending the man by any stretch. I just hope that everyone out to hang the guy has taken that into account. That's some pretty heinous shit to have gone through and dude obviously went quite a bit bat-shit.

He was borderline bat-shit even before his wife was murdered, but he made some awesome movies back in the day. Being a wee bit bat-shit most likely contributed to him being a brilliant director.

@ Jackattack - I am positive it wouldn't be to rape a 13 girl, but yes, he clearly went batshit crazy (and then got over it?).

I don't know that he'll ever "get over it", C. I know I wouldn't.

And I hope like hell if something like that ever happened to me, I wouldn't rape a teenager.

Hmm. Well, there's 10,000+ homicides a year in America, so times that by an average of 4 loved ones (spouses, children, parents) per murdered person, and the "Polanski had a hard life" argument awards One Free Rape of Child Argument to 40,000 Americans.

Also: Chinatown kinda sucked. There. I said it.

Let's lock Woody (Allen) up first. But nobody seems to hate him.

Hell, I don't believe that the Manson murders excuse this in any way. The whole point of the "Save Polanski" position has nothing to do with excusing him of his crime. It's recognizing that any chance of handing out justice, or even figuring what the hell really happened that night, is long gone, and its gone BECAUSE of the L.A. District Attorney and the LAPD.

And even if Chinatown sucked, he still has about half a dozen other truly great films.

If you would have read the court transcript papers, there wouldn't be a single doubt in your mind that Polanski should "do time" ... and lots of it. Check out the http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polan…
Now, regarding Charles Manson and his followers: there are too many coincidences in Sharon Tate's murder. There are also indications that she was 8-month pregnant with her former lover's (Jay Sebring's) child. Do the rest of digging yourselves. Oh and Larry King may be of the same opinion.