Log In

Home
    - Create Journal
    - Update
    - Download

LiveJournal
    - News
    - Paid Accounts
    - Contributors

Customize
    - Customize Journal
    - Create Style
    - Edit Style

Find Users
    - Random!
    - By Region
    - By Interest
    - Search

Edit ...
    - Personal Info &
      Settings
    - Your Friends
    - Old Entries
    - Your Pictures
    - Your Password

Developer Area

Need Help?
    - Lost Password?
    - Freq. Asked
      Questions
    - Support Area



w**k is a four-letter word ([info]esorlehcar) wrote in [info]unfunnybusiness,
@ 2009-11-04 10:36:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Some potentially good news:

Emma Thompson was confronted by a Shakesville reader about her signature on the appalling "free Polanski" petition, and she said she will remove her signature.

As Shakeville's Melissa McEwan comments, I'm reserving a large reaction until her name actually comes down, but just her reaction to the conversation is very heartening. Now if someone could only do the same with the many, many other artists I love who have signed...

(Post a new comment)


[info]cyndra_falin
2009-11-04 07:01 pm UTC (link)
Oh thats some good news.

(Reply to this)


[info]sneer
2009-11-04 07:03 pm UTC (link)
Even though, she stressed, Polanski has had some truly terrible experiences in his lifetime, experiences that we couldn't even imagine and which should not be taken out of the equation

Why shouldn't they be taken out of the equation? Did they cause him to drug and rape a child? No, they did not.

It's nice that she wants to take her name off the petition, but people need to stop playing that fucking card.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]esorlehcar
2009-11-04 07:19 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm really sick of the idea that somehow a traumatic past excuses this or anything else. Horrible things happened to Roman Polanski in his life, and I'm sympathetic. That doesn't make it okay for him to rape a child, and intelligent people really need to stop pretending that that's a valid argument.

Still, I'm happy she's removing her name (or at least, I'll be happy if she does).

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]shinysandals
2009-11-04 10:00 pm UTC (link)
Agreed.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]aaron_agonistes
2009-11-04 10:03 pm UTC (link)
This, exactly. Is there a line at which the trauma you've experienced makes it permissible to cause trauma to others? If he decided to walk down the street and got it into his head to rob a bank, or firebomb a car, or shoot a random person, would that also be okay? After all, he lived through a horrible situation.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]rosehiptea
2009-11-04 10:26 pm UTC (link)
Absolutely true.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]sandglass
2009-11-05 12:38 am UTC (link)
They should be in the equation as far as it takes to determine if the person is or isn't legally mentally ill because of them. Polanski seems very sane, no matter what has happened to him.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]librarianmouse
2009-11-05 04:21 am UTC (link)
Isn't that why the court originally ordered a psych evaluation for him before the sentencing? He was deemed sane enough to be sentenced at the time.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]shadwing
2009-11-05 05:23 am UTC (link)
I beleive so yes...and it would have been the results of that exam that would have also determined the sentance. The original deal was if he pled guilty and underwent the evaluation he could get a lighter sentance.

However the Judge was thinking of handing down a harsher sentance and possible deportation thats when he fled

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]gardnerhill
2009-11-05 01:05 am UTC (link)
Elie Wiesel survived the camps and watched his beloved father die right in front of him. He reacted to that horror by funding scholarships for poor people.

So, no, there is no correlation there. Nice try, putz.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]lil_miss_stfu
2009-11-05 01:35 am UTC (link)
Exactly. There are people who have been through much worse than Polanski who aren't out there raping children and generally being shitheads.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]maegwin_of_hern
2009-11-05 06:19 am UTC (link)
Here in Germany we recently had the case that young man who had been sexually abused as a child killed a neighbor who he thought was a pedophile. He didn't have any solid proof, his suspicion was based on rumour. A few months before the killing, he had called the police who checked the neighbor's appartment and didn't find anything, so charges were dropped then.

The judges charged him for murder, because even if bad things had happened to him in the past, doesn't mean he gets a free card to commit crimes. Also, arbitrary law is still illegal.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]gmth
2009-11-04 07:11 pm UTC (link)
Oh wow, I had no idea she had signed it in the first place. That really is heartbreaking. I hope she follows through on this promise.

(Reply to this)


[info]kumquat_of_doom
2009-11-04 10:07 pm UTC (link)
On the one hand, I'd been really hoping that her name on the petition was a fake, because Emma Thompson broke my heart by doing that.

On the other: thank God she agreed to take her name off the godforsaken thing.

(Reply to this)


[info]amadi
2009-11-04 10:28 pm UTC (link)
Now maybe she'll call her friend Kate Winslet and get Winslet to persuade her husband to get his name off of the petition too. *sigh*

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]kumquat_of_doom
2009-11-04 11:34 pm UTC (link)
And Jeremy Irons.

The voice of my all-time favourite Disney villain is not allowed to turn out to be such a bastard, damnit. D: D: D:

(Nice icon, though!)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]amadi
2009-11-05 12:54 am UTC (link)
And Mr. Rachel Weisz (Darren Aronofsky) too.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]moriath
2009-11-05 03:12 am UTC (link)
WHAT.

I'd missed that one.

And here I'd been thinking that since I'd never particularly cared about anyone on that petition I could hate on them all equally.

Now I think I might be D-: forever. Because Scar is totally the best Disney villain ever.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kumquat_of_doom
2009-11-05 02:11 pm UTC (link)
Tell me about it. If James Woods (Hades) had signed it as well, I'd be quitting Disney forever.

(Except Pixar. I have too much love for The Incredibles for that.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]skypirate
2009-11-05 11:56 am UTC (link)
WHAT. Did he sign it? Nooooooo. D:

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kumquat_of_doom
2009-11-05 02:10 pm UTC (link)
Afraid so - even before Emma Thompson had. *scowls* Bastard.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]a_trill
2009-11-05 12:04 am UTC (link)
Now if someone could just do the same for Tilda Swinton. We watched Orlando in my lit class today, and I spent the whole time thinking, "Why Tilda, why?"

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]kumquat_of_doom
2009-11-06 09:34 pm UTC (link)
Seriously. I was watching what had been my favourite-ever QI clip, where Emma Thompson talks about flashing Stephen Fry and scaring the life out of him, and while I was still laughing I also couldn't stop thinking "What the FUCK, Emma?"

I can't watch The Lion King the same way now, still. D:

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]finchbird
2009-11-05 04:36 am UTC (link)
I'm happy she's got enough sense to do this, but it would've been better if she (and others who I have little respect who are still on this petition) didn't sign it in the first place.

(Reply to this)

  
   
Privacy Policy - COPPA
Legal Disclaimer - Site Map