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October 2nd, 2009
05:34 PM ET
A week of icky entertainment storiesJust when the Mackenzie Phillips "I-had-sex-with-my-father" story was beginning to cool off we've been hit with another spate of cringe-worthy entertainment news. First it was Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland, which brought back up all the sordid details of his 1977 rape case involving a 13-year-old girl. To read her original grand jury testimony is beyond disturbing. Regardless of whether you think the famed director should be extradited to the U.S. or left alone due to his age, etc., what he is accused of doing is absolutely shocking. Then last night David Letterman dropped his sex and extortion bombshell on "The Late Show". He acknowledged having affairs with female staffers, information a CBS employee allegedly threatened to bring to light unless Letterman paid him off. Now, Americans love a sex scandal. Washington has provided plenty of them (courtesy of senators John Ensign, David Vitter, former senators John Edwards and Larry Craig, oh and former Pres. Clinton, to name but a few). Maybe Hollywood is just playing catch up. But enough already! It's time to take down the dirty laundry before disgust turns into nausea and nausea turns into... well, something really difficult to clean up. |
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lmao Melanie, that WOULD be interesting... (:
I would like to know how Sarah Palin feels about David Lettermans bombshell confessions. Does she have any comments? I think her point of view would be very interesting.
EVERYONE should be held accountable for their actions, regardless of fame, wealth, status, etc. People who defend those who have harmed a child(ren) in such a dispicable way are no better than the perpetrators themselves. There is absolutely no excuse for harming a child.
As for icky entertainment stories – they are a testament to how far our society in general has allowed itself to sink. We are more interested in the trashy than the intellectual, hence why where are so many "icky" reports. We concern ourselves more with the Jon & Kate drama than with paying attention to what's going on in the real world. We just can't seem to tear ourselves away from our wide-screen tvs to catch up on the latest trauma and drama of people we claim we hope to never relate to.
Perhaps if we showed more interest in things that edify us and encourage us to do something more constructive with our time, perhaps there would be less icky stories.
i second the Polanski/Manson punishment.
Has anyone seen who's sticking up for Polanski? Woody Allen is one and back in the day, he married his 14 year old steap daughter! Another in Whoopi Goldberg, we all know she's not playing with a full deck, she defended Micheal Vick's dog fighting by saying it was "cultural"
Yo, unbiased,
What if the "freak" admitted he did it, knew the girls age, plyed her with drugs and alcohol, ignored her protests, and then after conviction, ran to another country? That is all a FACT....
I just read most of the girls testamony; he is a pig!!!! How can anyone do that to a child? I don't care how "adult like" she may have looked or even acted, you do not do what he did to a 13 year old little girl. All these people demanding that his charges be dropped are just as messed up as he is! Shame on them! Shame! It just goes to show you how messed celebrities are, they think they are above the rules that other non-celebrities have to live by. All these people supporting him should rethink why they support people and how. You can support your friends without letting them get away with their "wrongs".
WOW! Roman Polanski is sure causing very strong views on both sides of the issue. I am a former rape counselor and I have read the numerous amounts of studies into this and similiar occurances. I can say with my deepest convictions that 93% of Accused Child Molestors are NOT in fact what they are accused of.
Let's ponder this for a moment..... Let's say you are an 18 year old man, you go into a club, meet a nice young woman, you two hit it off, you feel attracted to this girl physically and sexually. You leave with her, she suggests going to your place, you have consensual sex, wake up the next morning, She's gone, but the cops are at your house because it turns out that she was 15, not 18, had a fake ID to get into the club and now your being labeled a child rapist because you believed she was old enough! What were you supposed to do? Ask for a Blood sample, Birth Certificate, parental note of age??? I left the field bc I couldn't deal with phony "victims" anymore. I truly had heartfelt sympathy for these girls and then started noticing that someone put a bug in girls' ears and told them to go and be promiscuous then have regret and claim its rape!
I agree that our country is going to hell in a handbasket, with the stories of sex abuses running amuck, but I think we ALL need to evaluate the case! Most victims don't want to testify within the first 6 weeks of the attack, but they come to a better place after living with the trauma and realizing that they may be 1 of several that have been attacked and they fight to prevent it! Some times they win, sometimes they lose. But either way, they MAY have helped some! Why would this girl, who is now a 46 yr old woman not want to see the man, who stole her innocence, arrested, tried and convicted?
Another fact, a child rapist will not be a one time offender. Either they've attacked before and will continue to or they get a thirst for it and will attack several more times after their first victim!
The biggest problem in our country is that we do not believe in the truth that a person is Innocent until proven guilty! If anyone really wants to know whats wrong, perhaps we all need to look inside ourselves and see how we judge and then realize that at any moment, we could be the judged! Remember the Golden RULE!
All of you people defending these adulterers is sad but I am enraged by those of you trying to downplay the rape of a child. Having had my beloved neices raped and sodomized, I sincerely hope all of you defending this old, cowardly pedephile, that you NEVER experience this with any child that you LOVE. Maybe if it were your own flesh and blood it would be different.
Ugh what i week.
David Letterman couldnt of just shut up??!! Really, i dont thnk that was right...
And sheila i couldnt agree more!
they can hunt down 80, 90 year old nazis, and deport them for their crimes....but they hesitate about polanski? and worse, hollywood elite are backing him up? yes im sorry he endured ww2 horrors, and im sorry he lived after his wife and unborn son got slaughtered...but that and his age, imo, does not excuse or dismiss what hes done...
@ Barbara...you said we've gone downhill in the last decade. A decade is 10 years. George W Bush must have been that "liberal" that you were talking about being in charge of our country for 8 of those 10 years...
What can be said about David Letterman that has not already been said. He's a gap-toothed moron with the moral values of a pack of hyenas.
Hollywood has always thought that the law does not apply to them. They are treated like gods by stupid, pitiful mobs and usually have the money to buy whatever they desire, whether it's material, power or influence. Roman P. needs to be brought to justice of some kind at least. Humans should stand together when it comes to the sexual exploitation of children.
On the contrary, If Polanski was not rich and famous, if he was just an ordinary guy, would our government pay the money and make the effort to catch him and bring him back?
Don't get me wrong, I do think he is truly a creep.
I just hope we put such an effort forward toward those who are currently active in their criminality - the ones most of us do not even hear about.
I don't understand why people are defending Polanski, or saying that so much time has passed that people should just drop it. He broke the law by raping a minor and then broke it again by fleeing his punishment. I sincerely doubt people would be saying the same thing if he was just any guy on the street. He has to pay for what he did, just like every other criminal. It doesn't matter that the victim doesn't want the issue pursued. He broke the law. If he just would have severed the time that he was given back then, which was a good deal for rape if you ask me, none of this would have been a problem today. As to those people who say that he has lead a dramatic life: yes, he went through some horrible things but so have millions of other people who haven't broken the law. Besides, I sincerely doubt that the murder of his wife or his time in Auschwitz was going through his mind when he was drugging and raping that girl.
Sean, about your comment...really? You think this all started with clinton? How long have you been in america....these sex scandals have been going on for quite some time with a similar reaction before clinton.
Point the finger away from a former president and at our society itself...
Roman Polanski and Johnny Dep use to hang out and maybe still did till recently. I want to bring up the name Anthony Fox who dissappeared during his court case against Johnny Dep 'for having sticky fingers' at The Viper Room. Then Johnny Dep goes to France (no big deal, I've been there twice) to hide from the law. I think about Anthony Fox and I'm sad. Then I hear that Johnny boy hung out with Polanski and I say 'Two Of A Kind'. I'm waiting for Johnny to return to the US, for good. I refuse to see any of his movies and I don't know why DISNEY still casts him. ..Don't they read the papers!!!
I continue to be amazed at the number of people who actually give a crap about what politicians and celebrities do when they're not doing their jobs. I love movies, TV, music, but what the people do that provide all this – I couldn't care less! Celebrities are just people who happen to have really good jobs and get rich. They're still people. Some good, some bad, some really, really poor excuses for humans.
Politicians are all that plus liers, cheats, and grinning scammers that people seems to believe are there for the good of their country. What we have here is a pack of fools who, unfortunately, our young people admire and look up to. And many adults really believe what they read about them and actually give a damn. Not me. I'm too busy trying to keep my life and family on the right track. I'm more interested in if my bread is fresh then what celebrity slept with who, who's dating who, who left who. Just who the hell gives a damn? It's just stupid.
How predictable! People who rely on their inner compasses to guide them through life without the saving grace of Jesus Christ will do all sorts of heinous things and then try to excuse them for all sorts of ridiculous reasons. Roman Polanski, by law, was convicted of rape by a jury and fled and now has been a fugitive. As a man, he never faced up to his punishment. David Letterman thinks because he has confessed (and not really sorry, just caught), that all is well? And Hollywood and our government officials think that those of us who believe in Jesus are the nutcases? Our country is on a steep downward spiral into sin so profound, it will be our undoing.
Maybe some of you should watch the movie "Wanted and Desired" regarding the treatment Roman Polanski got from the justice system. I certainly would not defend a child molester, but there are some facts that aren't being discussed.
Another comparison for thought.
Since the elite hollywood crowd is standing behind Polanski because of the great work he has since done,then they also must now support the relesase and or dropping of all charges over 25 yrs. old for all priests.
No matter how you think the charitable work done by people who devote their lives to helping others far outways making a few good movies and living the life of luxery while avoiding prosecution.
So unless Polanskis suppoters are willingly to openly admit to a double standard to merely fit their wants,then they must now support petitions in support of the preists.
Just sayin
On a side note,never been to church and think guilty preists should be enjoyig lenghtly prison terms.
I'm waaaaay beyond nausea
Didn't the pres & CEO of CBS (Les Moonves) marry one of his subordinates (Julie Chen) without any of this same grief that Letterman is getting? LOL
Polansi plied a 13-year-old child with drugs and booze and raped and sodomized her. If that isn't deviance, nothing is. She cried to go home. Don't tell me he should be left alone just because he's in his 70s–he's a pedophile, and such a person does not become less dangerous with age.Has he been sufficiently punished for child rape? No, he has not.I like your idea, Alex!
@ Sandy,
You can't compare what he did to what others done to people in the past. He pleaded GUILTY to the crime and then fled the country. He is STILL GUILTY and deserves to serve the sentence he was sentenced to. By your comparisons, if someone killed another person at age 25, 50 years ago and left to live in another country, they should be forgiven of that crime, now that they are 75 years old?
There is this thing called the Justice System, just because you hide out in another country that won't send you back here, doesn't mean he's cleared of all charges. He belongs in jail to serve out his sentence, end of story.
All these celebrities who are standing up for him are delusional. Just because he made a few good movies, doesn't change the fact at what he did. So, it's ok for a "Celebrity" to rape a 13 year old girl and get away with it, when so many others who have done the same thing have to serve their time? He makes me sick and anyone standing up for him just shows how far this Country has fallen.
I have to say, I agree with Sandy. I think if the victim is wanting to let it go, they need to honor that.
Maybe time and money can be spent going after people who are CURRENTLY doing harm to children.
Maybe if the powers that be in California had been as interested in the sick sadistic man who kept Jaycee captive for 18 years as they have been with Mr. Polanski, she would have been spared the hell she has lived with.
I like the idea ,putting Polanski in with crazy Charlie Manson
Roman Polanski's life has been one beset by tragedy – from losing his mother in Auschwitz, surviving the Warsaw ghetto, then having his wife and unborn child murdered. In spite of this, he's managed to persevere and become a brilliant artist.
Having sex with a minor is wrong, but he didn't stuff her in a suitcase, bury her alive, tether her on the end of a rope with rape a daily occurrence, or hide her away for 18 years forcing her to bear children.
This happened 32 years ago, the victim doesn't wish to pursue it, the man is 76 years old. Leave it alone.
He needs to be punished for his actions......doesn't matter when they happened either. As a 47 year old woman I have seen this country go down hill in the past decade. I love my country but why can't we make things better. I'm truly scared for my children. All these liberal views are destroying our future.
I see the networks increasingly shamming publicity gimmicks to boost
ratings. Did anyone ever think to follow the money? It's worth well over a billion per gimmick in what it attracts in ratings and profits. This Letterman scam is just that, as well as the Gosselin thing. Paid actors in a play all choreographed ahead of time with big payoffs for each player.
Considering the size of the thing, it looks nearly as profitable and corrupt
as our government with their bank bailouts and the drug giants with their
sleaze medicine gimmicks and adds like Viagra. The poor public are the victims here who exist unaware of being the subject of foolery..
Thank you! I could not believe people are defending him. She was a child and what he did was disgusting and very, very wrong.
I just don't understand why France and other very prominent figures in Hollywood are coming to Polanski's defense? It doesn't matter if the incident happened now or 30 years ago – a 13 year old child CANNOT give consent to have sex. A CHILD!!! Doesn't anyone remember that??? Doesn't anyone remember there has been a warrant out for his arrest since he fled the country in 1977?? What in the world is going on for people to defend a child rapist?? I agree with Sean...what has this country come to???
Ever since that dirtbag Clinton, the media treats it like a badge of honor to have a sex scandal.
It makes me sick people are upset about Polanski, he should be castrated with a butter knife. What has this country come to.
@ c – last night on his show Jimmy Kimmel offered to pay for the prat's vasectomy. But your Polanski/Manson idea is a terrible one.
and what about where spencer pratt said hes (practically) not sleeping w/ wifey heidi to avoid getting her pregnant...is it just me, or is that the most briliant idea hes EVER had, not to procreate?!?!????
yes i think roman should answer to justice, a 13 year old is a 13 year old...no matter if it was 1977 or today.. someone mention putting him in a cell w/ charles manson...either roman takes him out for murdering sharon and his baby, or charlie shows him the "social graces" of prision life, esp for a child molester.....call me crazy but sounds like a good idea..