stman
07-12-2010, 01:09 PM
By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 12th 2010
Switzerland has decided not to extradite Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski to the United States.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/07/13/alg_director_roman-polanski.jpg
Roman Polanski's latest courtroom drama finally has an ending.
Switzerland has ruled the Oscar-winning director will not be extradited to the United States, from where he fled in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was taken into custody in September when he arrived in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival in Zurich. Polanski has been held under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland for several months.
"I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else," Polanski said in May, as officials spent months pondering his fate.
The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" was accused of serving his victim champagne and drugs in 1977 during a modeling shoot in Los Angeles, then raping her. Polanski was originally sentenced to 90-days of "diagnostic study," but when the judge decided to change his sentence, he ran.
The French-born filmmaker who escaped the Holocaust and grew up in Poland has continued to direct films in Europe, including "Frantic" with Harrison Ford and "The Pianist," which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director in 2002.
Polanski’s most recent film, "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor, earned the director praise from critics.
Not everyone is a fan, however. Actress Charlotte Lewis claims Polanski sexually abused her when she was 16 in 1982.
"He just said very coldly, 'If you're not a big enough girl to have sex with me, you're not big enough to do the screen test," the "Golden Child" star claimed he told her. "'I must sleep with every actress that I work with, that's how I get to know them, how I mold them.'"
However, despite the rape allegations, many in Hollywood have continued to compliment his filmmaking skills and continue to work with him in Europe. Most recently, Woody Allen, who has seen his own share of controversy, said Polanski has suffered enough.
"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 said during the Cannes Film Festival.
"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it," the actor/director said. "[The critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad."
Polanski rose to fame in the 1960s with "Rosemary's Baby," which launched the career of Mia Farrow. He later married actress Sharon Tate. The following year, a pregant Tate was brutally murdered by members Charles Manson's cult. Polanski directed several more films in the United States, including the Oscar-winning "Chinatown," before his flight to Europe.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/07/12/2010-07-12_film_director_roman_polanski_will_not_be_extrad ited_to_us_switzerland.html#ixzz0tTP7ldRI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 12th 2010
Switzerland has decided not to extradite Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski to the United States.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/07/13/alg_director_roman-polanski.jpg
Roman Polanski's latest courtroom drama finally has an ending.
Switzerland has ruled the Oscar-winning director will not be extradited to the United States, from where he fled in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was taken into custody in September when he arrived in the country to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival in Zurich. Polanski has been held under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland for several months.
"I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else," Polanski said in May, as officials spent months pondering his fate.
The Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" was accused of serving his victim champagne and drugs in 1977 during a modeling shoot in Los Angeles, then raping her. Polanski was originally sentenced to 90-days of "diagnostic study," but when the judge decided to change his sentence, he ran.
The French-born filmmaker who escaped the Holocaust and grew up in Poland has continued to direct films in Europe, including "Frantic" with Harrison Ford and "The Pianist," which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director in 2002.
Polanski’s most recent film, "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor, earned the director praise from critics.
Not everyone is a fan, however. Actress Charlotte Lewis claims Polanski sexually abused her when she was 16 in 1982.
"He just said very coldly, 'If you're not a big enough girl to have sex with me, you're not big enough to do the screen test," the "Golden Child" star claimed he told her. "'I must sleep with every actress that I work with, that's how I get to know them, how I mold them.'"
However, despite the rape allegations, many in Hollywood have continued to compliment his filmmaking skills and continue to work with him in Europe. Most recently, Woody Allen, who has seen his own share of controversy, said Polanski has suffered enough.
"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 said during the Cannes Film Festival.
"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it," the actor/director said. "[The critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad."
Polanski rose to fame in the 1960s with "Rosemary's Baby," which launched the career of Mia Farrow. He later married actress Sharon Tate. The following year, a pregant Tate was brutally murdered by members Charles Manson's cult. Polanski directed several more films in the United States, including the Oscar-winning "Chinatown," before his flight to Europe.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/07/12/2010-07-12_film_director_roman_polanski_will_not_be_extrad ited_to_us_switzerland.html#ixzz0tTP7ldRI