September 28th, 2011
01:44 PM ET
Roman Polanski apologizes to victimIn a new documentary, famed director Roman Polanski offers an apology to Samantha Geimer, the woman he unlawfully had sex with when she was 13. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker speaks on the case towards the end of Laurent Bouzereau's documentary, "Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir," which had its world premiere in Zurich, Switzerland on Tuesday. "She is a double victim: My victim, and a victim of the press," Polanski says in the film, which focuses more on the 78-year-old director's view of his life than details of the case. In fact, THR reports, the documentary doesn't really offer anything new that hasn't already been made available on the public record. 
July 19th, 2010
03:59 PM ET
Roman Polanski 'happy to be free'Days after he was released from house arrest, filmmaker Roman Polanski made his first public appearance at Saturday's Montreux jazz festival in Switzerland. The 76-year-old, who was set free July 12, showed up to support his wife, French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, who performed at the Lake Geneva event. Last September, the "Rosemary's Baby" director was arrested in Zurich on the basis of a U.S. extradition request stemming from a 32-year-old sex charge. In 1978, Polanski fled America after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles. He was freed last Monday after Swiss authorities declared that the U.S. had failed to provide records of a January hearing that would have shown Polanski had already served his sentence. "I'm not sure what I will do hereafter," Polanski told Swiss station TSR on Saturday. "For the moment I'm happy to be free."
May 3rd, 2010
10:33 AM ET
Roman Polanski breaks his silence on extradition effort
"I can remain silent no longer," Polanski said Sunday in a posting on a website run by his friend, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. The Oscar-winning director's letter came 10 days after a California Court of Appeals Judge Peter Espinoza denied a petition by his victim to dismiss the 33-year-old sex case against Polanski. "I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words," he wrote.
April 23rd, 2010
09:50 AM ET
Roman Polanski court petition deniedCalifornia Court of Appeals Judge Peter Espinoza Thursday denied a petition by Samantha Geimer to dismiss a nearly 33-year-old sex case against director Roman Polanski. The California 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles denied the motion on Thursday without comment. The famed director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Pianist" pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 but fled to Europe before he was sentenced. Geimer, now in her 40s and a married mother of three, was his victim.
October 16th, 2009
08:52 AM ET
Leona Lewis assault suspect chargedSinger Leona Lewis says she was shocked by the alleged attack. Also, what is director Roman Polanski up to these days in prison? He's still working on a film. Find out more in The Buzz:
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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Roman Polanski has published a personal appeal to Swiss authorities asking that they deny a request by California prosecutors to extradite him to the United States.