(Child Rapist) Polanski receives Academy Award statue (from Harrison Ford)

The Associated Press ^ | (September 8, 11:21 a.m. PDT)

[Behind Liberal Lines]

DEAUVILLE, France - Roman Polanski finally took home his Academy Award statue for best director this weekend, nearly six months after winning for "The Pianist."

Harrison Ford, a friend of Polanski and the star of his 1988 movie "Frantic," handed the director the prize Sunday at the Deauville film festival. Ford also had announced Polanski's win at the March 23 ceremony in Los Angeles, which the director didn't attend.

Polanski faces arrest in the United States since pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He was charged with rape and five other felonies in 1977.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor, then fled Los Angeles for Paris in 1978 to evade sentencing.

The 70-year-old is presiding over the jury at Deauville, on the Normandy coast.

"The Pianist" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and also earned Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best actor. Adrien Brody starred as Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who eluded the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.

[mystery-ak]

Wow....age twelve....you were raped young man.....

[jwalsh07]

At age 17 I was sleeping with my science teacher age 27

Perhaps your English teacher would have been a better choice?

[jwalsh07]

Are you dense? She was 13, she was drugged, she was forcibly raped.

[ambrose]

It is like the Pete Rose situation and the Hall of Fame.

[ambrose]

I first had sex at 12, and continued through highschool,

Wow, what a stud you are!

[Tribune7]

Girls used to marry at 14;

He married her????!!!!!. I always thought he drugged her and raped her. Guess I'm not a Hollywood type.

[jwalsh07]

It is like the Pete Rose situation and the Hall of Fame.

Not even remotely. Rose took his punishment. Polanski fled to France. He is a fugitive. Harrison Ford should know about fugitives but sadly he doesn't give a crap.

[freekitty]

I really didn't think people could be so dumb.

[Paleo Conservative]

Harrison Ford's girl friend is about the same age as the girl who Roman Polanski raped is now.

[Restorer]

The girl was 14, as was Juliet when having her affair with Romeo.

Juliet and Romeo did not "have an affair." They were married.

[TopQuark]

Are you dense?

No. But you are rude. And apparentlty unable to read.

[ambrose]

Not even remotely. Rose took his punishment. Polanski fled to France. He is a fugitive. Harrison Ford should know about fugitives but sadly he doesn't give a crap.

I guess we're having two different conversations. I was speaking to the propriety of Polanski getting the award, and you're speaking Harrison Ford's actions. Well yes, Harrison Ford sucks.

[TopQuark]

Harrison Ford should know about fugitives but sadly he doesn't give a crap.

For someone so bent on moralizing, you exhivit total disregard for civility. Have you been born in a forest? Did you just recently get down from a tree? Or simply do not know English other that that of hip-hop?

[jwalsh07]

Child-rape rfers to what is called a statutory rape: this does not imply that he used force, but that any sexual itercourse with someone underage is considered NOT concentual.

These are your unedited words of wisdom.

He used force. He used drugs. It was non consensual.

Are we talking about the same "he", Roman Polanski or not?

[Restorer]

Use of drugs or alcohol to get someone into a condition where they are not mentally capable of consenting or objecting to intercourse is considered forcible rape, regardless of the age of the people involved.

[jwalsh07]

For someone so bent on moralizing, you exhivit total disregard for civility.

I am neither a moraliser nor an exhiVitor but neither stops me from showing disdain for moral relativists who argue that 13 year olds are fair game for idiot directors of Polish extraction.

Have you been born in a forest?

No.

Did you just recently get down from a tree?

No.

Or simply do not know English other that that of hip-hop?

No.

Now here's one for you:

Are you David Duke?

[jwalsh07]

I'm speaking to both. Fugitives from child rape should not be getting awards of any kind, they should be getting hard time at Attica. Their Hollywood buds should simply get disdain.

[RJL]

The girl was 14, as was Juliet when having her affair with Romeo. Girls used to marry at 14; that simply is not the same thing as "child-rape".

You sound like someone that doesn't have a beautiful young daughter.

Also, he plied the young girl with alcohol and drugs before raping her, if that makes any difference to you.

[TopQuark]

Now that's a normal conversation, thank you. Are we talking about the same "he", Roman Polanski or not?

No, we do not. Judy has implied that the girl may have consented to the intercourse. My point was that to explicate the notion of "statutory rape;" that is, even if she were to say yes, it would still be considered rape. So "he" referred to a generica perpetrator of a statutory rape.

I am actually unfamiliar with the detaild of the Polanski's case, and for that reason would not be speaking about it.

See, when you ask a question rather than rush to judgment --- or even worse, resort to name-calling --- you find that you and I have no disagreements.

[jwalsh07]

Then I apologise and I hope your questions about trees, jungles and hip hop were not meant in a racial vein.