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No More Hiding In Switzerland, Especially For Roman Polanski
What's surprising about Roman Polanski's arrest isn't that it happened 32 years late, it's that police waited for him to make an actual border crossing before they arrested him on that 32-year-old warrant.
The director of "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was detained Saturday at Zürich Airport en route to the Zurich Film Festival, on a warrant given to Swiss authorities a few days earlier by the U.S. Justice Department by request of the Los Angeles county district attorney's office. Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and serving 42 days in prison, not returning even to accept his Best Director Oscar for "The Pianist" at the Academy Awards in 2003.
Tags: Vagabonding? / Roman Polanski / Celeb Travel / Award Show Travel / → All Tags
Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Roman Polanski Come Over
Have you seen this man? A documentary about his flight from justice may not have made the Oscar shortlist this year, but Roman Polanski may be trying to return to the U.S. 30 years after he first left the country.
Polanski moved to Paris shortly after being convicted of statutory rape but before his final sentencing. Having served about half of a 90-day prison sentence by that time, he apparently feared re-imprisonment enough to go into exile, where he has remained even while he picked up his first directing Oscar for 2002's "The Pianist." Now, his lawyers have filed a motion for his case to be dismissed on the grounds of judge misconduct as was shown in "Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired."
Marina Zenovich's documentary, which focused on the Polanski case and included interviews with his victim (who approved of the movie and even attended its premiere), didn't make the Academy's shortlist for Best Documentary Feature despite getting great reviews at Sundance. And it seems unlikely to sway the current district attorney, who would still require Polanski to surrender to Johnny Law on his re-entry. But maybe it's time to let the Pole stop traveling. Maybe they could fake-arrest him at next year's Academy Awards and allow him to miraculously escape into the audience.
Related Stories:
· Film Cited In Request To Dismiss Polanski Case [NYT]
· 2009 Academy Awards Best Documentary Short List Unveiled [FilmJunk]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: The Dishrag]
