Film Industry's Polanski Defenders Disappoint

I am so very disappointed in most of Hollywood and the international film industry right now, because far too many people seem to feel some need to defend a child rapist just because he also happens to make good movies.

Whoopi Goldberg, Whoopi-freakin'-Goldberg, the same woman who said this about Kayne West taking away Taylor Swift's VMA mic time:

"It was kind of a bullying moment, you do not do that to kids. Sometimes you can get away with doing stuff, you come out and you take your chances with another adult, but with a kid you do not do that. With a kid they are going let you do your thing."

Had this to say about Polanski's case:

"I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape."

Well, Jesus, Whoopi, I'm so glad that you're clear on that, so let's take everyone who ever drugged and raped (orally, vaginally, and anally, just for the record) an underage kid (who was repeatedly saying no) and let them out of jail to walk the streets, because, you know, it's not really rape-rape.

Unfortunately, Whoopi has a hell of a lot of company. Here's a (no doubt incomplete) list of film industry people who have signed a petition in support of Polanski:

Pedro Almodovar, Asia Argento, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Fanny Ardant, Asia Argento, Olivier Assayas Gabriel Auer, Christophe Barratier, Gilles Behat, Marco Bellochio, Monica Bellucci, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Patrick Bouchitey, Jacques Bral, André Buytaers, Christian Carion, Henning Carlsen, Jean-Michel Carre, Patrice Chéreau, Elie Chouraqui, Souleymane Cissé, Alain Corneau, Jérôme Cornuau, Miguel Courtois, Alfonso Cuaron, Jonathan Demme, Alexandre Desplat, Georges Dybman, Betrand van Effenterre, Jacques Fansten, Michel Ferry, Stephen Frears, Thierry Frémaux, Sam Gabarski, Tony Gatlif, Costa Gavras, Jean-Marc Ghanassia, Christian Gion, David Heyman, Laurent Heynemann, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gilles Jacob, Just Jaeckin, Pierre Jolivet, Nelly Kaplan, Wong Kar Waï, Jan Kounen, Harmony Korinne, Emir Kusturica, John Landis, Claude Lanzmann, Patrice Leconte, Michael Mann, François Margolin, Mario Martone, Radu Mihaileanu, Jeanne Moreau, André Larquié, Claude Lelouche, Claude Miller, Michel Ocelot, Alexander Payne, Michele Placido, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Yasmina Reza, Laurence Roulet, Walter Salles, Jean-Paul Salomé, Marc Sandberg, Julian Schnabel, Barbet Schroeder, Ettore Scola, Abderrahmane Sissako, Paolo Sorrentino, Tilda Swinton, Radovan Tadic, Danis Tanovic, Bertrand Tavernier, Cécile Telerman, Alain Terzian, Pascal Thomas, Giuseppe Tornatore, Serge Toubiana, Nadine Trintignant, Tom Tykwer, Wim Wenders

Can you say, "Rape Apologism?" I knew you could!

Three who have refused to join the chorus of those who think child rape is just fine as long as you're artistic, or had bad things happen to you, or managed to evade capture for a while, or old: Luc Besson, Kevin Smith, and Greg Grunberg. That list really needs to be a hell of a lot longer.

Here are some links to good takedowns of the many disgusting excuses being written and published (really, Huffington Post, really?!) defending Polanski.

Feministe takes on the Polanski Defend-a-thon

Kate of Shapely Prose writes on Jezebel quoting the Hollywood defenders of Polanski

Women & Hollywood calls it like it is

Feministing has a good round-up of some of the early feminist coverage

Melissa from Shakesville at The Guardian

And Kate Harding again at Salon, reminding us of what this is really about

Warning, do not read comments on some of the more mainstream blog posts unless you're willing to wade through a whoooole lot of rape defenders.