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Dec. 19th, 2009 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell, I thankfully left to visit my family for Xmas vacation on Wed, which means I was well ahead of the winter storm that blanketed the east coast and cancelled flights in all the major cities, and interstae 81 in Virgina. I think it was Virgina. We just got a lot of rain. Poured all day Friday, but is quite lovely today, if a bit on the chilly side - 47 degrees (well chilly for South Carolina at any rate).
Saw an interesting play Friday night entitled Six Dance Lessons. It was described as the most produced play around the world - which astonished me since I'd never heard of it. It's by Richard Alfieri and is about the relationship between a 72 widow of a Baptist Minister and 40 year old male gay dance teacher in Tampa, Florida. Rather wonderful two character piece, slowly building over time and through the context of the private dance lessons. Quite touching in places and hilarious in others. The theater itself was small, quaint and cosy. It only sat about 50 people, maybe less, in chairs on a raised wooden stand, with the stage close to us. Intimate live theater is a joy to watch, particularly when performed by professionals - they make it seem so easy. You believe they are the characters, that you are seeing something real. And unlike television or film - there is no editing, there is no retakes, it is live - so flubs must be handled quickly. Also unlike the huge 100-500 seating theaters - the acting is closer, more initimate. It may well be the hardest acting to do, because of the intimacy, yet at the same time the most rewarding. I adore live theater - it is by far my favorite visual medium. There's nothing like "real" 3D as opposed to computer generated 3D.
We were sitting next to one of the theater organizers, who had directed and stage managed plays in the past, but couldn't this season due to other committments. He was also Woody Harrleson's acting teacher, so was raving about the recent flick The Messenger - a rather small film about the relationship between two officers who have to inform families that their loved ones died in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Also been devoring my father's New Yorkers...read a lengthy article by Jeffrey Tobin (who'd written the bestselling non-fiction tome about the Supreme Court), regarding Roman Polansky and the Case of Celebrity. Unfortunately, you need to be a subscriber to read it. Here's Jezebel's account of the same article if you are interested : http://jezebel.com/5420636/roman-polanski-amanda-knox-and-the-problem-of-celebrity-criminals
The only part of the article that stands out for me:
This tiny paragraph in small type on page 56, which is a letter from Samantha Gailey's attorney explaining to the court why her family did not want her to testify at a trial and why they wished to avoid a trial, and what their goal was in pressing charges:
Long before I had met any other attorney in this case, my clients informed me that their goal in pressing charges did not include seeking the incarceration of the defendant, but rather, the admission by him of wrongdoing and commencement by him, under the supervision of the court, of a program to insure complete rehabilitation...Whatever harm has come to her as a victim would be exacerbated in the extreme if this case went to trial.
(Unfortunately true since it was promised to be one othe most sensational Hollywood trials, and the 13 year old victim had been having repeated sexual intercourse with her 17 year old boyfriend, prior to any association with Polanski. The rape victim shield would have only gone to help her so far.)
I remember the statement over all the other rhetoric from the case because it strikes me as a simple enough thing to ask, but tragically impossible to obtain even after all this time. 20 years. Where both the Judge and the Prosecutor are long since dead or retired. Toobin makes overwhelmingly clear that Polanski could not learn from his actions nor would ever believe he did something wrong for these reasons: 1) Vogue had hired him at the time to take sexually suggestive pictures of young girls (the mother, an actress herself, thought 13 could be potentially too old) 2)Polanski married and had affairs with women in their late teens - between the ages of 16-18 repeatedly over the years and no one said a thing. 3) the continued support of people around him, due in large part to his celebrity.
So now Polanksi, at 77, is wiling away his days in his Chalet in the Alps, his favorite, the one he came to after Sharon Tate was brutally murdered, under house arrest, while editing his latest film. He did serve time in prison, about 40-50 days worth. But largely the US Justice system left him alone. Not paying much attention until now. His celebrity to a degree worked against him and for him. (The judge wanted to sentence him to two-three years in prison and ban him from the US. Ironically the second bit was accomplished. )
So...what I got from the article and I think may well have been Tobin's point, is the celebrity can to a degree get away with far more than the rest of us. Even if they will be noticed more regarding it. What I also got and disturbed me enough to write about it here is how women, particularly young girls continue to be treated in our society. As a woman, and at one time a young girl myself, now with a young neice, this makes me shudder. Perhaps my father is right and Polanski and his ilk should be hung by their thumbs.
Saw an interesting play Friday night entitled Six Dance Lessons. It was described as the most produced play around the world - which astonished me since I'd never heard of it. It's by Richard Alfieri and is about the relationship between a 72 widow of a Baptist Minister and 40 year old male gay dance teacher in Tampa, Florida. Rather wonderful two character piece, slowly building over time and through the context of the private dance lessons. Quite touching in places and hilarious in others. The theater itself was small, quaint and cosy. It only sat about 50 people, maybe less, in chairs on a raised wooden stand, with the stage close to us. Intimate live theater is a joy to watch, particularly when performed by professionals - they make it seem so easy. You believe they are the characters, that you are seeing something real. And unlike television or film - there is no editing, there is no retakes, it is live - so flubs must be handled quickly. Also unlike the huge 100-500 seating theaters - the acting is closer, more initimate. It may well be the hardest acting to do, because of the intimacy, yet at the same time the most rewarding. I adore live theater - it is by far my favorite visual medium. There's nothing like "real" 3D as opposed to computer generated 3D.
We were sitting next to one of the theater organizers, who had directed and stage managed plays in the past, but couldn't this season due to other committments. He was also Woody Harrleson's acting teacher, so was raving about the recent flick The Messenger - a rather small film about the relationship between two officers who have to inform families that their loved ones died in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Also been devoring my father's New Yorkers...read a lengthy article by Jeffrey Tobin (who'd written the bestselling non-fiction tome about the Supreme Court), regarding Roman Polansky and the Case of Celebrity. Unfortunately, you need to be a subscriber to read it. Here's Jezebel's account of the same article if you are interested : http://jezebel.com/5420636/roman-polanski-amanda-knox-and-the-problem-of-celebrity-criminals
The only part of the article that stands out for me:
This tiny paragraph in small type on page 56, which is a letter from Samantha Gailey's attorney explaining to the court why her family did not want her to testify at a trial and why they wished to avoid a trial, and what their goal was in pressing charges:
Long before I had met any other attorney in this case, my clients informed me that their goal in pressing charges did not include seeking the incarceration of the defendant, but rather, the admission by him of wrongdoing and commencement by him, under the supervision of the court, of a program to insure complete rehabilitation...Whatever harm has come to her as a victim would be exacerbated in the extreme if this case went to trial.
(Unfortunately true since it was promised to be one othe most sensational Hollywood trials, and the 13 year old victim had been having repeated sexual intercourse with her 17 year old boyfriend, prior to any association with Polanski. The rape victim shield would have only gone to help her so far.)
I remember the statement over all the other rhetoric from the case because it strikes me as a simple enough thing to ask, but tragically impossible to obtain even after all this time. 20 years. Where both the Judge and the Prosecutor are long since dead or retired. Toobin makes overwhelmingly clear that Polanski could not learn from his actions nor would ever believe he did something wrong for these reasons: 1) Vogue had hired him at the time to take sexually suggestive pictures of young girls (the mother, an actress herself, thought 13 could be potentially too old) 2)Polanski married and had affairs with women in their late teens - between the ages of 16-18 repeatedly over the years and no one said a thing. 3) the continued support of people around him, due in large part to his celebrity.
So now Polanksi, at 77, is wiling away his days in his Chalet in the Alps, his favorite, the one he came to after Sharon Tate was brutally murdered, under house arrest, while editing his latest film. He did serve time in prison, about 40-50 days worth. But largely the US Justice system left him alone. Not paying much attention until now. His celebrity to a degree worked against him and for him. (The judge wanted to sentence him to two-three years in prison and ban him from the US. Ironically the second bit was accomplished. )
So...what I got from the article and I think may well have been Tobin's point, is the celebrity can to a degree get away with far more than the rest of us. Even if they will be noticed more regarding it. What I also got and disturbed me enough to write about it here is how women, particularly young girls continue to be treated in our society. As a woman, and at one time a young girl myself, now with a young neice, this makes me shudder. Perhaps my father is right and Polanski and his ilk should be hung by their thumbs.