Doubly Standard Procedure: Hollywood

Elia Kazan was a very famous Broadway and film director (Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront). He did some serious work in the early fifties.

He had also, at one time in his youth, been a member of a secret cell of the communist party. During the so-called Red Scare, he “named names,” that is, revealed the names of individuals with whom he’d associated in his days as a communist. Some people in the industry lost their jobs and livelihoods, it must be noted.

But it is equally important to remember that the Communist Party’s avowed goal was total world domination. That fact is downplayed a lot, and a lot of blame is put on the US (evil capitalists) for turning the Worker’s Paradise in the Evil Empire (read about the forced famines in the Ukraine that the New York Times lied about for one example of their real evil the Communists perpetrated).

Anyway, Hollywood finally wanted to give Mr. Kazan an honorary Oscar for his years of work in the Industry. There were protests. Some actors in the audience stood with their backs turned when the Oscar was presented.

Then we have Roman Polanski. Renowned director, right up until the time he drugged a thirteen year old girl and sodomized her. I apologize for being so graphic, but it’s important to understand what happened. Polanski was caught,

“..and was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation.

Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain.”

So he did what anyone else would do. He fled the country to continue making movies and to win an Oscar in exile.

Now he wants the case overturned for prosecutorial misconduct.

So, he gives a 13-year-old girl Quaaludes and has sex with this child. Among the other crimes are the idea he could only get 42 days of time for this. The man should have been horsewhipped out of town. Children are the most defenseless of our citizens. They need our protection from predators. We want people to understand it is a BAD thing to drug them and then have sex with them.

Yet, are there protests in Hollywood against Polanski? Did anyone stand up and turn their back on the presentation of his Oscar (accepted by someone else) for The Pianist?

Am I missing something here?