Stolen from Hot Air's Headlines, Luc Besson, who, being a French director and all, is practically obligated to sign the petition, nevertheless says Non:

The French director Luc Besson refused to sign the petition calling for Polanski's release.

He said: "I have a lot of affection for him, he is a man that I like very much but nobody should be above the law. I don't know the details of this case, but I think that when you don't show up for trial, you are taking a risk."

In case you weren't certain (as I wasn't), Besson writes/produces/directs a lot of action-type movies, like Banlieu 13 (District 13) and The Transporter and Taken. (Note I'm scrambling his credits; some he produced, some wrote, etc.) Fifth Element, too, a movie I hate but which is popular for reasons I have never understood.

More Links: It's happened before: Luminaries begged for Jack Abbott to be spared jail for murder. Why? Because, supposedly, he had literary talent.

Normal Mailer was admirably -- or disgustingly, or both -- candid about his reasoning:

During a tumultuous press conference outside the courtroom, Mailer told reporters, I am willing to gamble with certain elements in society to save this man’s talent!

The "elements" he was willing to "gamble with" included the murdered man, of course, who had no literary talent to speak of, and therefore could be murdered with impunity -- not even really a human being, when you think about it.

All this is too much even for the New York Times:

In Europe, the prevailing mood — at least among those with access to the news media — seemed to be that Mr. Polanski has already “atoned for the sins of his young years,” as Jacek Bromski, the chief of the Polish Filmmakers Association, put it.

We disagree strongly, and we were glad to see other prominent Europeans beginning to point out that this case has nothing to do with Mr. Polanski’s work or his age. It is about an adult preying on a child. Mr. Polanski pleaded guilty to that crime and must account for it.

Let me explain something to the NYT which anyone following this case knows. They think it's strange that Polanski would be arrested now.

It's not strange at all. Polanski's lawyers sought for his case to be dropped last year (or the year before), citing, among other things, their assertion that LA prosecutors weren't even attempting to arrest Polanski. Their theory being -- and this isn't off-the-wall -- that if there is no genuine prosecution being sought, the state is obligated to drop the pretense of it and acknowledge that.

Well, that seems to have lit a fire under prosecutors who don't want this semi-defense being employed, so they renewed their efforts to get a warrant on Polanski.

Polanski had previously been smarter about visiting countries where he wasn't protected. And the LA prosecutors had, in fact, sought warrants where he was expected to show up -- but Polanski seems to have been tipped to that and wound up not attending. This time, the warrant was delivered, and Polanski did finally show up.

So, NYT: Mystery solved. You can stop with your passive-aggressive pussyfooting "On the other hand" sop to the Hollywood elite now.

By The Way: Thank God for small mercies &c., but the feminist blogger left is not joining the fashionable crusade to free Roman.

I didn't think they would, really, but there's always that chance. When the left's cultural betters give them their marching orders, they tend to snap to.

But, for feminists, even fake-rapes like the Crystal Mangum fake-rape is a very big deal worthy of outrage and continued insistence that Something must have happened, so really they could not easily reverse field and claim that a genuine rape was a mulligan.

So, really, I guess this is merely congratulating people for not being monsters, but in the current climate, I guess congratulations are still in order.

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