Amid the furor surrounding the WikiLeaks scandal, you’ll be forgiven for not remembering that the European Film Awards will be given this coming Saturday, Dec. 4, in Talinn, Estonia. What may also have escaped your notice is that Roman Polanski’s new film, “The Ghost Writer,” has the highest number of nominations.
Roman Polanski — remember him? He’s that really creepy European director who raped and sodomized a 13-year-old girl 33 years ago and remains a fugitive from justice in the United States . (If you want a quick primer on the case, read this excellent summary by my Politics Daily colleague, Eleanor Clift.)
When we earlier checked in with Monsieur Polanski, he was living under house arrest in Switzerland, after he left his home in France to attend the Zurich Film Festival in September 2009. In July, the Swiss authorities decided not to ship him back to the U.S. for trial on the grounds that American authorities had failed to provide confidential testimony about Polanski’s original sentencing procedure. As a result, he was declared a “free man” and he returned to his home in Paris (albeit with an outstanding Interpol arrest warrant in 188 countries).
Needless to say, it seems unlikely that Polanski will venture forth to Talinn to collect any prizes, should he win some. (The film is nominated in seven different categories, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.) Earlier this year, “The Ghost Writer” (titled “The Ghost” in Europe) won Polanski a Best Director Award at the Berlin Film Festival, although he was under house arrest at the time and was unable to attend.
Read the rest of this story at www.PoliticsDaily.com…
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Speaking of Wikileaks, here’s my round up of European reactions to the scandal on Politics Daily.
Image: varios 84 by fotos de camisetas de SANTI OCHOA via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
November 30, 2010, 9:48 pm
Creepy or Victim? no doubt having sex with an underage is highly reprenhesible ans so is the killing of ten of thousands as in Iraq .
one has to take in consideration the corrupt American judicial system which answer to the peoples that paid them to get elected versus the European system where Judges answer to no one .
The entire Polanski proscecution was nothing else but a scam for these peoples to use Polanski for a higher political career , He fled they failed {thanks for us}, justice was never served,never will be as of todate the victim has testified againt the proscecution , will Polanski ever repeat what he did , at 77 I seriousely doubt it, Not wanted to defend him per say one must at least look what he went thru as a kid and later as hi pregnant wife Sharon Tate was slaughtered by the Mason family, that would make anyone go crazy and do really irrational things , prior to the affair that led to his arrest He was not a pervert but very much someone that beat the Gestapo,lost most of his Family in nazi death camp, leaved with the animals and later overcome failure become a very good movie producer and was very much looking to become a Father . Something the hatemonger forget to mention.
As far as Interpol looking for Polanski I very seriousely doubt it , the reason Interpol headquater are located in Lyon France .
To be more precise 1 hour away from their Headquaters if that much.
Unlike in the USA you cannot buy a Judge or a Police officer in France they are not elected,they are professional a very strong distinction
December 1, 2010, 9:22 pm
The most amusing comment I heard on the wiki-leak brouhaha was from Zniegniev Brzinski (sp.?), US Nat’l. Security Officer under Pres. Carter, speaking on US Public TV’s nightly news hour,quoting an old Hapsburg court worthy way back when: “The situation is catastrophic, but not serious.”
December 27, 2010, 4:13 am
The world need more people like Julian Assange, to clean up from the trash from this planet