Question of the Day: Besides Woody Allen, Who Is The Last Guy Polanski Would Want as a Character Witness?
jonathanturley
It appears that when I suggested Woody Allen was the last person Polanski who want as an advocate (here), I spoke too hastily. As the French continue their campaign to force the return of Roman Polanski to their country (and avoid extradition to the United States for his rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1997), a new controversy has emerged from the Sarkozy government. The culture minister advocating for the famed director is the nephew of the late Socialist French president Francois Mitterand — Frédéric Mitterrand. Mitterrand appears to have more than a platonic interest in the underlying controversy.
In his 2005 autobiography entitled “The Bad Life,” Mr. Mitterand wrote: “I got into the habit of paying for boys… “All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously… the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire.” He added “[o]ne could judge this abominable spectacle from a moral standpoint but it pleases me beyond the reasonable.” Mitterand continues to explain that “[t]he profusion of very attractive and immediately available young boys puts me in a state of desire that I no longer need to hinder nor hide… as I know that I will not be refused.”
Since the cultural minister is describing a criminal act of rape and molestation, it is simply amazing that he has been given a cabinet position by Sarkozy, let alone play a public role in defending another accused pedophile, Polanski.
While Mitterand insists that he was loosely using the term “boys,” his book described cruising for young boys in Thailand — a major destination for pedophiles.
