Forget pollution, debt, war and all the other miserable legacies passed from American generation to generation. My children's children will be blogging about Roman Polanski's legal team stonewalling the director's extradition. I'm serious! How else are we supposed to take the latest news reports from L.A. and Switzerland?
Team Polanski isn't even pretending anymore. Its new statement Wednesday explained that, "If, after a fair hearing in Switzerland at which the entire record of this case is truthfully presented, the Swiss determine that extradition is justified, Mr. Polanski will of course comply with a lawful extradition order and return to California to litigate the issues of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct and be finally sentenced under the law." Oh. Ah. "Of course." This came after another hearing in which an L.A. judge declined to unseal that Super Secret OMG Bombshell Prosecutor Testimony that will confirm said misconduct once and for all.
So to recap: An outraged Polanski has vowed to fight on, and his lawyers are essentially pledging he'll be taken to California over their dead bodies. Well, yes -- because it's going to go on forever. Will you just get on the goddamned plane, Roman? Or can we drop it? No one cares either way at this point, just do something. The world doesn't need Bernard Henri-Levy Jr. running editorials from Polanski's kids about how even their father's corpse will kick and scream all the way back to the West Coast. It doesn't need Zombie Polanski grunting variations on "I can remain silent no longer!" while noshing on organic brains in his cushy Gstaad chalet. You just know this will happen before he is ever sentenced, and it's no legacy we want, people. Who will fix this?
ยท Polanski Legal Team Says He Will Continue Court Fight [NYT]