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Roman Polanski FINALLY arrested....


59LesPaul

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I rather hope that the federal authorities dismiss the extradition.

Temptation was very strong at the time of his offense, his judgement was clouded, he was a younger man, not as wise as today, and the judge erred then. It is understandable that he fled. It does seem inhumane to send him to prison now so many years later when he is 76 years old and no longer a danger.

Accounts vary as to how much time he could draw, from a maximum of 16 months according to the corrections guys, to 3 years or more according to the district attorney, but either way it seems like a lot of effort spent to accomplish what? Sending a message to the world that you can't just fly into Los Angeles, exploit 13 year olds and then jet off to Paris without consequences.

But he has already served time, and the judge did not honor the original plea agreement. It is understandable that Mr. Polanski fled. He could not rely on the judge to sentence him in an honest way. It is not Mr. Polanski's fault that the court mishandled the case.

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He should have stuck around period. Even if he had to do time, it would've been over by now. Fleeing is the cowardly way out.

"You can run but you can not hide."

I'm GLAD his old ass is sitting in a cell right now, and I have not one drop of sympathy.

If it were my daughter, he'd be looking at street justice...like a baseball bat up where the sun don't shine.

What a creep. <_<

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He served time in Chino. They had to have released him for him to be able to flee. The judge was not straightforward in the sentencing. That is not Mr. Polanski's fault. France is his home. It was natural for him to return there after he served time.

It seems to me that if someone is going down that it is important to provide a zealous defense so that, after the dust has settled, people can reasonably believe that he received a fair trial at least.

But I also believe it is important to consider the arguments for the prosecution. Hotplant's remark about street justice illustrates why the courts must recognize the public outcry for justice, that is to discourage mob actions in the street or some revival of the French Revolution. People do not want Mr. Polanski to receive special treatment merely because of his celebrity status.

CHINO'S PRISON has been in the news this week, but not for a riot (thankfully). Rather, it's because director Roman Polanski, now in custody in Switzerland, spent 42 days imprisoned in Chino in the 1970s.

Polanski, 44, reported to the California Institution for Men on Dec. 16, 1977, for a psychiatric evaluation following his guilty plea to one count of unlawful sex with a minor.

Yep, the director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" did his time in Chino town. Specifically, in Reception Center East, described in a 1978 Daily Report article - located for me by Kelly Zackmann of the Ontario City Library - as "a protective custody area where informers or inmates who may be endangered if allowed to circulate among the main prison population are sent."

In what must have been an unsettling circumstance, several members of the Manson gang, who had killed Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, eight years earlier, were housed in Chino. How did Polanski spend his time? Cleaning.

Assigned a 6-by-10-foot private cell, Polanski "spent most of his first afternoon inside methodically scrubbing every square inch of his new accommodations with toilet paper," according to a Polanski biography by Christopher Sandford. "After dinner, he repeated the process."

He must have been issued unlimited toilet paper. "Over the next few days he seemed to display an almost fetishistic interest in sanitation and hygiene generally," Sandford continued, "as a result of which he was issued a mop and broom and assigned to clean the prison day room each morning, when the other prisoners were exercising."

Polanski was allowed to watch TV occasionally, write letters and receive visitors, but he couldn't use communal areas such as the library or gym due to concerns for his safety. Likewise, he was allowed to shower in private.

An inmate told the Daily Report that Polanski was an object of derision.

"Every day they called him 'baby raper,' and they would spit at the window of his cell at him," the inmate said. I think the prisoners had more of a moral sense than some of Polanski's defenders.

Among Polanski's visitors in Chino was producer Dino De Laurentiis, who fired him from a movie they'd planned to make. (History does not record whether De Laurentiis ate afterward at Flo's.)

The director was released on his own recognizance on Jan. 27, 1978, after serving 42 days and completing the psychiatric evaluation. He was due to be sentenced days later and apparently believed he would get probation.

Instead, he fled for Europe after hearing that the judge planned to send him back to prison indefinitely unless he agreed to be deported.

Now, nearly 32 years later, Polanski is back in custody, facing extradition to the United States. Will Chino see him again?

Although Polanski was said by inmates to grow increasingly despondent during his 42 days, he later said his time in prison had its benefits.

"I was a happy man after a few days in Chino," Polanski wrote in his autobiography. "I was out of the public eye. I felt secure and at peace." Sounds like the director gave Chino two thumbs up.

http://www.dailybull...com/ci_13464136

Coup De Stereo: Roman Polanski's Musical World

By Nick Dedina

One thing we've noticed over here at Rhapsody is how current events and the news affect people's listening habits. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise -- if Michael Jackson dies or Herbie Hancock wins a Grammy or a Johnny Cash biopic comes out, people instantly want to listen some of their music.

That brings us to music from Roman Polanski movies. Now, I am going to take the coward's way out and sidestep the issues about why music from Polanski movies has suddenly picked up on Rhapsody.

I don't even want to go there.

After all, I get enough angry emails when I make the (theoretically) bland statement that the Pretty In Pink soundtrack has aged much better than the Breakfast Club soundtrack. Also, being a music critic means that you actively try to avoid the real world as much as possible -- it's scary out there, people!

But Roman Polanski being very much in the news of late means that people are searching for his movie themes on Rhapsody a heckuva lot more than they were a month or two ago.

His most revered movie theme is from Chinatown, wherein the brilliant film composer Jerry Goldsmith married film noir jazz with washes of unsettling synthesizers. The melancholy theme to the private-eye classic has become a jazz standard over the years. My favorite rendition is this one by horn player Terence Blanchard, who has also made a name for himself as a film composer.

blog.rhapsody.com/2009/10/polanski

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=BJ6b9kfI1Tw

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=DX-oATJzdOI

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Even in Chino, Polanski kept directing

David Allen, Staff Writer

Created: 10/13/2009 01:20:04 PM PDT

ROMAN POLANSKI'S 42 days in the Chino prison from December 1977 to January 1978 were recounted here the other day, prompting a note from a prison employee at the time (whom I know) with a fascinating insider story.

It seems that during Polanski's stay, the director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" didn't get rusty. He was enlisted to help make - why not? - a Department of Corrections training film.

The prison's training manager was assigned to produce a film about prison gangs for department use.

"The training manager got the bright idea that Roman Polanski would be a great help in the production and direction of this film," my source says.

Cameras rolled in the prison's East facility, the same one trashed in the recent riot. It was a lockup for high-security and protective-custody inmates.

"Roman was a very diminutive and overwhelmed-by-prison inmate, but over in the East Facility cellblocks, with camera and lights rolling, he would `forget himself' and DIRECT, BABY, DIRECT!" cracks my source.

"He would shout out orders to some really heavy-duty gang characters - allowed out of cells only one at a time - to `stand this way' or `suck in that gut,' and all sorts of personal comments and commands. And the gang members, clearly starstruck by being on camera, meekly complied! "Polanski probably weighed 115 pounds and was 5-foot-1 or 5-foot-2. The gang guys were 6-foot-2 and taller and 250 to 300 pounds of bench-pressed, tattooed and battle-scarred muscle! Our officers could not have ordered these particular inmates around with this much authority or cooperation - but that is the magic of show biz, I guess."

Actors are cattle. Especially in Chino.

Polanski and the training manager are said to have spent several hours a day for two weeks working on the training opus. (I imagine they also haggled over the credit.) And that's with a cast of prisoner-actors unlikely to waste time worrying about their motivation.

The retired employee says everyone who would know about the film is retired and that, speaking of starstruck, "the training manager got in some trouble when word got up to Sacramento headquarters." As for the footage, "the film was suppressed and never used for departmental training," my source says. "But it is an interesting footnote!"

dailybulletin.com/ci_13552263

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  • 8 months later...

Hi T Y'All,

The "Mongrel Polanski" has been released by the cowardly Swiss. Good luck to the State of California in getting some justice.

"Authorities in California have vowed to continue their pursuit of the Oscar-winning film-maker Roman Polanski, despite Swiss authorities yesterday refusing his extradition to the US.

The Swiss refusal followed nine months of deliberation, during which Polanski was held under house arrest at a multi-million-dollar chalet in the mountain resort of Gstaad. The director is wanted for sentencing in the US on charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Los Angeles county district attorney Steve Cooley called the Swiss decision a "disservice to justice and other victims as a whole". However, he also appeared to admit there was little chance of bringing the 76-year-old film-maker to the US for trial, provided he did not set foot outside his native France. Polanski is believed to have returned to his home in Paris last night, and the country does not extradite its citizens.

Cooley told Associated Press his office would work with federal officials to have Polanski returned for sentencing if he was arrested in a country with a favourable extradition treaty. Authorities previously sought his arrest in England, Thailand and Israel.

The Oscar-winning director of Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist was accused of plying his victim with champagne and Quaaludes during a modelling shoot at his friend Jack Nicholson's house in LA, then raping her. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty only to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse.

The Swiss government said its decision to reject extradition for Polanski was based in part on US authorities' failure to provide transcripts of secret testimony given by the attorney who originally handled the director's case. The testimony "should prove" that Polanski actually served his sentence while undergoing a court-ordered diagnostic study after charges were filed, the Swiss justice ministry said.

"If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the US extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation," the ministry said. They also noted that Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, has repeatedly asked that the case be dropped.

Cooley responded by accusing the Swiss of exploiting a quirk of California law to set the director free. He said the decision was a "rejection of the competency of the California courts", adding: "The Swiss could not have found a smaller hook on which to hang their hat."

http://www.guardian....tradition-swiss

Regards, Danny

PS, And this from his co conspirator Wife.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1294326/Roman-Polanskis-wife-slams-house-arrest-says-children-deserve-suffering.html

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Polanski is a free man, and Gibson's career is done, as in his agent dumped him.. I know, I know, he's got his own money to make movies, but, who's he gonna get to act for him or with him?

Hollywood is awaiting Polanski's latest masterful work!

Huh?

Thoughts??

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Actually Gibson's agent died and subsequently the WME agency dumped him. It's headed by super agent Ari Emanuel who has had it in for Mel ever since the alcohol induced, anti-Semitic rant a few years ago, even going so far as to take out a full page ad to write a disparaging letter against MG. But your point is well taken nonetheless. With Gibson's latest implosion(s), it seems as if whatever projects he may be working on (ie/ he is to direct DiCaprio in a Viking movie) may be done from the inside of some sort of incarcerated state (like Polanski finishing the final bits of his latest movie 'Ghost Writer' while on house arrest).

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Polanski is a free man, and Gibson's career is done, as in his agent dumped him.. I know, I know, he's got his own money to make movies, but, who's he gonna get to act for him or with him?

He could always get the Idaho and Illinois Klan to remake 'Birth Of A Nation', with black face and all that.

B)

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