Meryl Streep Gave Roman Polanski Standing Ovation-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
Meryl Streep, who was critical of President-elect Donald Trump in a Golden Globes speech, once gave accused pedophile Roman Polanski a standing ovation at the Oscars.
The Truth:
Meryl Streep gave director Roman Polanski a standing ovation after he won Academy Award for Best director for “The Pianist” in 2003.
Meryl Streep’s standing ovation of Roman Polanski was dredged up after she delivered a speech at the Golden Globes that took aim at Donald Trump (without naming him directly):
https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/818295979182960640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Twitchy, a “social media curation site,” posted an article about Meryl Streep’s standing ovation of Roman Polanski, who fled to Poland to avoid child sexual assault charges in 1978, and surmised, “there’s a reason conservatives hate Hollywood.”
The post includes a clip of Harrison Ford announcing Roman Polanski, who was not present at the awards ceremony, as the winner of the Academy Award for Best Director. Then, at the 1:10 mark, Streep and other A-list celebrities give Polanski a standing ovation, as can be seen in this screen grab:
Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in a 1977 incident in which he reportedly drugged and raped 13-year-old model Samantha Geimer. Polanski served 43 days in jail and fled the country the day before his sentencing in 1978, and has since avoided extradition.
In a 2011 documentary titled “Roman Polanski: A Film Memior,” Polanski apologized to Geimer, saying “She was a double victim: my victim and a victim of the press.”
For her part, Geimer has applauded Polish courts’ decisions to block U.S. extradition requests for Polanski. She told NBC in 2015 that she had “sent a letter of congratulations to Mr. Polanski’s lawyers” after the most recent request was blocked:
‘”I’m sure he’s a nice man and I know he has a family and I think he deserves closure and to be allowed to put this behind him. He said he did it, he pled guilty, he went to jail. I don’t know what people want from him.”
In 2009, after Roman Polanski was arrested amid another failed extradition attempt, Streep told an Italian reporter, “I’m very sorry he’s in jail.” That quote has also been circulated in the wake of Streep’s comments about Trump to argue that she’s hypocritical.