Your email is not valid
Recipient's email is not valid
Submit Close

Your email has been sent.

Click here to send another

thescroll_header thescroll_tagline thescroll_tagline_RSS
The Scroll

Gore Vidal: Polanski Is a Persecuted Jew

Novelist-provocateur thinks religion, not rape, to blame for director’s woes

By Liel Leibovitz|October 29, 2009 2:00 PM|5comments
Print Email
Polanski at a funeral in Paris in January.(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

So why is Roman Polanski in a Swiss prison cell? To hear author, intellectual, and seasoned provocateur Gore Vidal tell it, the famed director’s troubles have little to do with having drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl all those years ago. Polanski, Vidal tells The Atlantic in an interview published online yesterday, is being hounded because he’s Jewish. He cites “[t]he idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel all in white, being raped by this awful Jew, Polacko—that’s what people were calling him,” Vidal said, adding decisively that “anti-Semitism got poor Polanski.” In his defense, Vidal, who knew Polanski in the 1970s, seemed reluctant to address the whole matter. “I really don’t give a fuck,” he replied when first asked about his former friend’s woes. “Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?” You, sir, are what we Jews call a real mensch.

A Conversation With Gore Vidal [Atlantic]
More In:
  • http://anti-semitism dfda

    Roman Polanski is a symbol of anti semitism? Is Polanski arrested because of his jewishness?

  • Humbly

    Quatsch! Polanski is persecuted. Feh! Polanski was accused by a “young hooker”? Yes, modern Jews all believe that 13 year-olds can make their own decisions!

  • http://www.howtostopsmokingweedtips.com/how-to-stop-smoking-weed/ How To Stop Smoking Weed fast

    What i don’t realize is in reality how you’re not really much more neatly-liked than you may be right now. You’re very intelligent. You know therefore significantly relating to this topic, produced me personally imagine it from so many numerous angles. Its like men and women aren’t involved until it is one thing to do with Woman gaga! Your own stuffs great. All the time deal with it up!

  • http://mobileskills.blog.com/2011/08/01/music-programs-of-the-htc-sensation/ Avis Finder

    What’s Happening i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It positively useful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & assist other users like its helped me. Great job.

  • http://skillsrhyme.tumblr.com/post/10705765739/the-brand-new-htc-rhyme-smart-phone Natisha Gurkin

    Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the internet the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people think about worries that they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and also defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thanks

Thank You!

Thank you for subscribing to the Tablet Magazine Daily Digest.
Please tell us about you.

Gore Vidal: Polanski Is a Persecuted Jew

Novelist-provocateur thinks religion, not rape, to blame for director’s woes