Hollywood: A Giant Pack of Brats

Have you read about all this “Free Roman” fuss in Hollywood about the arrest and pending extradition of the award winning director Roman Polanski? I have, and it has left me wondering what the hell is wrong with these people. Do they really think a man should get away with drugging and raping a 13 year old girl, no matter how long ago it happened? Are they so enraptured by his talent as a director that they are willing to overlook the fact that he pled guilty to, and was convicted of, raping a child? Do they really think that we all should overlook it? What is going through the minds of all of these heretofore intelligent seeming people that makes it not only logical to let him get away without punishment, but actually imperative that he do so?

These are the thoughts that went through my mind over the last several days. I could not understand how a reasonable human being could think this way. Then it occurred to me that these people might not actually be reasonable human beings – or at least not reasonable ADULT human beings. I realized that these people were like little children who are in the store with their parents and find themselves mesmerized by a toy they are absolutely certain that their parents will buy for them. It matters not that there is no money in the budget for it. It matters not that they have plenty of toys at home and it is neither Christmas nor their birthday. Their eyes are all a-sparkle and their little mouths hang open just a bit and the entire world has faded from view, lost in the glow of their admiration and desire for this fabulous and wondrous thing. The universe is entirely filled with this sparkly and seductive new toy and there is no more room for logic or even a modicum of self control.

They thrust the toy in their parents’ faces and demand adulation of the creature from them as well. Isn’t it shiny? Isn’t it the coolest thing ever? Can they buy it, please, please, please? The hurt and betrayal in their eyes is so palpable that the parent who denies this greatest of all wishes must surely feel like they are abusing their child horribly and unforgivably with their swift and inexorable “no”. The child cannot understand why the parent doesn’t throw logic and responsibility to the wind and surrender to what must surely be their own equally unconquerable lust for this toy. How could they not understand that the child must have this toy or perish? How could they put any other consideration ahead of acquiring it? How could they say “no”?

I concluded then that what I thought had been the cacophony of Hollywood’s elite clamoring to support their dear friend and colleague, had actually been the chorus of enumerable 'inner children' desperately tugging on their parent’s sleeve and whining because Mom and/or Dad had the effrontery to say, “No. You can’t have the talented film director. The cost is too great. If we let him get away with raping a child, we may as well throw up our hands and not try to protect children from sexual predators at all.”

And, like a child whose disappointment makes them petulant and unreasonable, many of Hollywood’s movers and shakers will continue to sign protest petitions and spout nonsense about the why this was not really a crime and/or that it was so long ago, etc. But children need to learn they can’t have everything they want. It makes them better adults and enables them to function more effectively in the world when they grow up. Most of them do learn this lesson. And most of them eventually get over their disappointment, as well.

Eventually Hollywood will too. Won’t they?

Photo by 'Protopito goes to Nederland'