Howard Kurtz on Roman Polanski

From washingtonpost.com:

If Polanski was an ordinary Roman, and not an award-winning film director, we wouldn't be having this debate. There is sympathy for him because he's considered a great artiste. The Hollywood elite wouldn't give Polanski the plumber the time of day if he had sexually assaulted an underage girl. And that suggests to me a stunning double standard.

Of course if Roman Polanski were a plumber he probably would not have been offered the kind of plea bargain he made and skipped out on. Additionally, it is highly unlikely that his 30 year European sojourn would have been allowed to have happened for 30 days by the authorities in Europe. If Roman Polanski were a plumber, he would have been found, arrested, extradited and put on a plane within 30 days.

Kurtz is right, it is a double standard and it is wrong.