Roman Polanski Was “Blindsided” By Being Kicked Out Of The Academy And His Victim Responds To The News

Yesterday, we reported that filmmaker Roman Polanski, along with Bill Cosby, was voted out of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the organization’s Board of Governors. This comes after Cosby was found guilty on three counts of sexual assault. However, the Polanski expulsion was in response to a decades-long court case that saw the filmmaker arrested and charged with raping a 13-year-old.

While many people, including us, wondered when the Polanski news would be coming, after Harvey Weinstein was expelled months ago, the timing of this was definitely odd and without warning. Of course, we weren’t the only ones surprised by the announcement. Apparently, Polanski was caught off guard, as well.

In a statement given to The Wrap, Polanski’s attorney Harland Braun said, “We plan to ask the Academy to follow its own rules which is to give Roman 10 days notice to present his side. We were prepared but were blindsided by their violation of their own standards. What did the 56 members review??”

At first, you may scoff at the idea that Polanski was surprised by the news. However, the attorney for the filmmaker does have a point. It’s not like any new investigations have been ongoing or news has broken about his inappropriate behavior in decades. And in fact, as we mentioned yesterday, the Academy awarded Polanski a Best Director Oscar in 2002 for his film “The Pianist,” which was decades after the filmmaker fled from the US to avoid jail time for the sexual assault.

That being said, its clear that the Academy is taking these allegations much moriously, in light of recent events, and no one can dispute that Polanski’s history does warrant this sort of action being taken. We’ll see if the appeal by Polanski results in any changes, but at this point, it looks like the legendary filmmaker’s expulsion will stick.

UPDATE: It looks like Polanski’s victim, Samantha Geimer, has spoken out about the Academy’s ruling, and her comments may surprise you.

“It is an ugly and cruel action which serves only appearance,” said Geimer, in an interview with Vanity Fair. “It does nothing to change the sexist culture in Hollywood today and simply proves that they will eat their own to survive. I say to Roman, good riddance to bad rubbish, the Academy has no true honor, it’s all just P.R.”

She continues to offer her opinion, specifically about Polanski’s expulsion being tied to Bill Cosby. “They could at least expel him on his own, but to tag him onto Cosby, what a bunch of douchebags,” she said.