Roman Polanski Will Skype Into The Venice Film Festival To Avoid Extradition
Haughty fugitive from justice Roman Polanski is still under the impression that the important cineastes of the world want to see his entitled sex offender face at their movie marathon hoedowns. The Hollywood Reporter says that Roman will attend the premiere of his film An Officer and a Spy at the Venice Film Festival next month via Skype. The U.S. and Italy have an extradition agreement and Roman would be immediately snatched up by the Carabinieri if he entered the country and shipped back to the States. Hopefully in cargo class.
Roman pleaded guilty to felony statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1978 and fled the country when he thought he might have to do some jail time. Neither Italy nor the U.S. have forgotten about this. An escape gondola would not be an option for him if he showed up in Venice next month.
“If he puts his toe one inch over the line, he’ll be in jeopardy,” says attorney Joshua Dratel, an expert in extradition matters.
Roman doesn’t have the best luck with attending film festivals since he fled to France to take advantage of their lovely limited extradition agreements back in the day. Ten years ago, the Swiss cops did the U.S. cops a solid and put him in cuffs at the Zurich Film Festival. He was there to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award – so that’s funny and it also demonstrated how different the climate was back in the day because plenty of celebs came to his defense.
That move sparked an outcry from a who’s-who of film world luminaries (Harvey Weinstein spearheaded a petition signed by everyone from Alfonso Cuaron to Natalie Portman to Tilda Swinton that read: “We demand the immediate release of Roman” and expressed “dismay” that “an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by police to apprehend him.”
Harvey Weinstein spearheaded that petition? You don’t say! There’s no word of any celebrity petitions on the horizon for him post #MeToo movement.
Roman Polanski’s historical-fiction thriller An Officer and a Spy stars his wife and Instagram defender Emmanuelle Seigner as well as Oscar-winning French actor Jean Dujardin . It’s up for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival hence Polanski on Skype. Will they bring the laptop up to the podium and just thrust a microphone in front of it if he wins? The rotten fruit that will hopefully be thrown could really fuck up that Macbook. What a waste.
Pic: Wenn.com