Vidal Polacko

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Even I, a Roman Polanski apologist and let-it-go-already arguer, don't agree with some of what Gore Vidal has told The Atlantic's John Meroney about the Samantha Geimer case in an 8.28 posting. There are, however, slivers of truth here and there.

Meroney: "In September, director Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland for leaving the U.S. in 1978 before being sentenced to prison for raping a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson's house in Hollywood. During the time of the original incident, you were working in the industry, and you and Polanski had a common friend in theater critic and producer Kenneth Tynan. So what's your take on Polanski, this many years later?

Vidal: "I really don't give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she's been taken advantage of?"

Meroney: "I've certainly never heard that take on the story before."

Vidal: "First, I was in the middle of all that. Back then, we all were. Everybody knew everybody else. There was a totally different story at the time that doesn't resemble anything that we're now being told."

Meroney: "What do you mean?"

Vidal: "The media can't get anything straight. Plus, there's usually an anti-Semitic and anti-fag thing going on with the press -- lots of crazy things. The idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel all in white, being raped by this awful Jew, Polacko -- that's what people were calling him -- well, the story is totally different now from what it was then.

"Hollywood once provided protection for some of its people. For example, Rock Hudson was heterosexual to the public until 1985, when he announced he had AIDS.

"Studios protect big moneymakers. The movies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day were profitable. Each star was given the Sheriff's telephone number to say, 'Lay off.' The Sheriff wasn't going to go fucking around with the talent. They were the income of Hollywood."

Meroney: "During the 1970s, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and producer Robert Evans were celebrated for lifestyles of sexual extravagance."

Vidal: "Well, they're all virgins, every last one of them. I can testify to that. And the last one you mentioned, he's a super virgin."

Meroney: "They've certainly never been criticized and condemned for their sexual excesses. But Polanski was condemned even before he pled guilty to raping a girl.

Vidal: "Well, believe it or not, anti-Semitism is very strong out here, even though this is a Jewish business. L.B. Mayer was the worst anti-Semite of all."

Meroney: "But he was Jewish."

Vidal: "Well, Mayer's view was, 'The public will turn on all of us if they know that one of us has done anything.'"

Meroney: "You think anti-Semitism is motivating the prosecution of Polanski?"

Vidal: "Anti-Semitism got poor Polanski. He was also a foreigner. He did not subscribe to American values in the least. To [his persecutors], that seemed vicious and unnatural."

Meroney: "What are 'American values'?"

Meroney: "Lying and cheating. There's nothing better."

Meroney: "So you're saying that a non-Jewish director wouldn't have to worry about getting caught up in a sex crime scandal? Such a thing wouldn't be an issue for Martin Scorsese?"

Vidal: "Well, he's an absolutely sexless director. Can you think of a sex scene that he ever shot?"

Meroney: "Errol Flynn stood trial for raping underage girls in 1943, and was acquitted. Was he treated differently than Roman Polanski?"

Vidal: "Everybody liked Errol Flynn."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 29, 2009 at 4:21 PM

comment #1

joncro says ...

Gore's off his meds these days.......

here he was a year ago on the BBC, absolutely classic stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD0p-wfCARk

Posted by joncro at October 29, 2009 4:52 PM

comment #2

admiralmpj says ...

Do I need to listen to a guy who spends any amount of time defending Timothy McVeigh???

Posted by admiralmpj at October 29, 2009 5:10 PM

comment #3

televisiontears says ...

What a class act. It really is too bad that Polanski wasn't given the sheriff's number to get him out of raping a 13 year-old. I'm sure it was because he's Jewish. Awesome. Vidal's always been a pompous ass more concerned with provocation than substance. This isn't really a surprise.

And oh, that MSM and their "anti-fag" leanings. At what point will the gay community speak out against the word "fag" the way prominent African-Americans did for "nigger"? The use of "fag" by gay men has always been confusing to me. I have (gay) friends who think it's empowering to take the negative connotation from it, and others who think we should stop using the word altogether. It's just like the "nigger" vs. "nigga" debate.

Sorry, I don't really have a point with that. I just think it's fascinating the way language can evolve over time in different cultures.

Posted by televisiontears at October 29, 2009 5:22 PM

comment #4

Pynchon8 says ...

Keitel and his girl in Mean Streets, Leo and Vera in The Departed, carradine and Hershey in Boxcar Bertha...

Posted by Pynchon8 at October 29, 2009 5:35 PM

comment #5

Phreaker says ...

'Whore" is overstating it but I catch his meaning and agree - those who there are the time understand why and how this thing went down. It still doesn't excuse it - a crime was committed. I'm still wondering if there was actual penetration or if he dry humped. I have a feeling that he didn't penetrate because it would have caused bruising, tearing, etc. And there would have been evidence of that.

Posted by Phreaker at October 29, 2009 5:46 PM

comment #6

Josh Massey says ...

Phreaker, go take a cold shower.

Posted by Josh Massey at October 29, 2009 6:13 PM

comment #7

DeeZee says ...

"Studios protect big moneymakers."

Polanski's a money-maker? Since when? Even by 70s arthouse standards, the money he made on most of his movies was modest, more like Marty territory. [But I guess, in terms of inflation, that take probably meant something.] On a related note, Repulsion and Cul-de-sac are now online at crackle.

"For example, Rock Hudson was heterosexual to the public until 1985, when he announced he had AIDS."

That tell-all said otherwise.

"Well, they're all virgins, every last one of them. I can testify to that. And the last one you mentioned, he's a super virgin."

Maybe by 70s standards, they were virgins, but they'd be considered sluts by our standards.

"Anti-Semitism got poor Polanski. He was also a foreigner. He did not subscribe to American values in the least. To [his persecutors], that seemed vicious and unnatural."

Wouldn't that just be ethnocentrism, not anti-semitism? Either way, last time I checked, the whole melting pot thing is supposed to imply he's welcome here.

"Meroney: "Errol Flynn stood trial for raping underage girls in 1943, and was acquitted. Was he treated differently than Roman Polanski?"

Vidal: "Everybody liked Errol Flynn."

Not that person who wrote the tell-all about him. Plus, that's bullshit that no one liked Polanski. Rosemary's Baby became a fucking household name in America. Anyway, the reason Flynn got away with it was because he didn't appear "sympathetic" to commies like Chaplin.

Posted by DeeZee at October 29, 2009 6:15 PM

comment #8

hiviper says ...

admiralmpj : right on, case closed

Posted by hiviper at October 29, 2009 6:45 PM

comment #9

dinther says ...

Like others long past their prime, Vidal has no insights left worth listening to. So he makes up for it by making "controversial" statements that he thinks will garner him attention.

I had a short conversation with him years ago, wherein he effected all of the jaded, fatigued mannerisms of a public intellectual. But there was nothing to it; it was all schtick. I was left wondering why on earth this man was so self-impressed, only to realize that it is all part of his act..

Posted by dinther at October 29, 2009 6:53 PM

comment #10

Tom Reagan says ...

Will you fucking shut up, Gore? Nobody cares about what you have to say anymore.

Posted by Tom Reagan at October 29, 2009 9:42 PM

comment #11

TheGK says ...

Sounds like he was thinking that Polanski was being chased by Yosemite Sam.

Posted by TheGK at October 30, 2009 3:44 AM

comment #12

George Prager says ...

I didn't know that televisiontears was a Gore Vidal expert. So how many of Vidal's books have you read, ttears?

"Well, they're all virgins, every last one of them. I can testify to that. And the last one you mentioned, he's a super virgin."

That's pretty damn funny.

And yes, Phreaker, take a cold one and then put an icepack down there and sit in a dark room for a couple of hours.

Posted by George Prager at October 30, 2009 5:34 AM

comment #13

George Prager says ...

DeeZee's Fisking of the interview is priceless. Perhaps the dumbest thing I have ever read.

Posted by George Prager at October 30, 2009 5:54 AM

comment #14

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Somebody oughta lock DeeZee and Vidal in the same room, set up a video camera, lock the door, and throw away the key.

After we eventually recover the footage, we'll all have a new and ideal -- albeit terrifying -- definition of the word "incomprehensible."

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at October 30, 2009 7:07 AM

comment #15

Travis Crabtree says ...

Ooooooohhh. All this time I thought I was disappointed in Polanski because he gave 'ludes to a 13 year old girl and then fucked her in the bum against her will.

Turns out I only felt that way because I hate jews so much.

Thanks, Gore!

Posted by Travis Crabtree at October 30, 2009 8:11 AM

comment #16