roman polanski (10 posts)

Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

Two years later, Roman Polanski is finally getting what was coming to him.

Meaning, the 78-year-old director was honored today with a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival, the very honor he landed in Switzerland in 2009 to collect, only to end up under house arrest while Los Angeles prosecutors tried to revive his three-decade-old statutory-rape case.

"What I can say. Better late than never," Polanski said upon receiving his award as he was treated to a standing ovation. "It's a very moving moment for me."

KEEP READING +

Donato Sardella/WireImage.com

Celebrities have their fair share of run-ins with the law. And then there are those who like to run away from the law.

Just look at Estella Warren, who yesterday after getting busted for a DUI punched a cop and tried to escape police custody only to be captured again.

Usually, a tabloid circus erupts around these folks that can last in some cases for years (see O.J. Simpson).

So in honor of the latest high profile lawbreaker—and with apologies to the Bronx Zoo cobra (we love ya, Mia)—we've rounded up our favorite five famous celebrity fugitives of recent infamy:

KEEP READING +

Shea Walsh/AP Images for EAA/Myspace.com

Is there anyone who doesn't like a juicy celebrity sex scandal? Other than the celebrities embroiled in one, that is. Or their devastated and life-altered loved ones. (Hi, Arnold Schwarzenegger!)

But for every star that curses their uncontrollable loins, there's just as many who should be getting down on their knees (er, maybe not…that's how some of them got into trouble in the first place) and thanking their lucky stars for having their otherwise good names temporarily dragged through the mud.

Herewith, five stars who successfully managed to navigate the waters of celebrity infamy—and five who failed spectacularly.

KEEP READING +

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images

Looks like it's back to jazzy shindigs and multi-million dollar compounds (sans electronic bracelets) for Roman Polanski…but not in the States just yet. 

Mere days after his release, the Oscar-winning director made his first public appearance Saturday at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, according to the New York Post.

The 76-year-old director was originally taken into custody last September on a U.S. warrant stemming from a statutory rape conviction in 1977. 

KEEP READING +

George Pimentel/Getty Images

The wheel of celebrity justice has spun again, and while Lindsay Lohan is—barring the hiring of a new lawyer that comes equipped with a magic wand—heading to jail, Roman Polanski isn't.

That's right, after 10 months and house arrest, the Hollywood-polarizing, sentence-fleer is once again a free man.

So clearly Lindsay can stop interviewing lawyers now. All she needs to do to beat this thing is flee the country for 33 years, then all will be forgiven!

KEEP READING +

Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com

Forget Hannah and Her Sisters. It's more like Roman and His Defenders.

Cannes was abuzz this weekend after Woody Allen stood by fellow Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski when it came to Polanski's 33-year-old child-sex scandal.

"It's something that happened many years ago... he has suffered, he has not been allowed to go to the United States. He was embarrassed by the whole thing," Allen, 74, said during an interview with a French radio station while making a promo stop at the film festival. "He has paid his dues, he has had a hard life. The girl involved doesn't want anything to happen to him."

If only there was just one accuser. And if only if Allen didn't have a checkered past of his own...

KEEP READING +

AP Photo/Reed Saxon; AP Photo / Roberto Pfeil

Where there's smoke there's fire?

A second accuser has stepped forward, lobbing some now familiar yet no less damning allegations against embattled director Roman Polanski.

British actress Charlotte Lewis today held a press conference with camera-ready attorney Gloria Allred, claiming that she, too, was sexually victimized by Polanski back in 1982 when she was all of 16 years old.

The alleged incident took place in the director's Paris apartment, just four years after Polanski fled the U.S. to avoid sentencing for unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old.

KEEP READING +

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images

The Roman Polanski legal drama now comes with director's commentary.

The Polish-born filmmaker, currently under house arrest in Switzerland, released a statement today (in multiple languages) in which he says he can "remain silent no longer" regarding attempts to extradite him back to the United States where he has been a fugitive for the past 33 years.

This request for extradition "is founded on a lie," he writes.

KEEP READING +

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images, Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

If Roman Polanski's victim can't convince a judge his child-sex case isn't old news, what chance does Polanski have?

A California appeals court has denied a petition for dismissal filed by Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when Polanski admittedly had sex with her following a photo shoot at Jack Nicholson's L.A. home.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a minor in 1977 and fled to Europe the following year, fearing the judge would renege on their plea agreement and give him more jail time.

And while Polanski is under house arrest in Switzerland and arguing that the time he spent behind bars 32 years ago is penance enough, Geimer, too, has expressed fervent desire for the case to go away.

"She is a person who is harmed by the maintenance of the prosecution and she wants it to end," Geimer's attorney, Lawrence Silver, wrote in the petition for dismissal, which cited an updated victims' rights law in California. "She has not been treated fairly."

KEEP READING +