Fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski is not taking his expulsion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lying down, according to his lawyer. The Chinatown director…
Fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski is not taking his expulsion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lying down, according to his lawyer.
The Chinatown director is threatening to sue the academy for not getting a “fair hearing” before the Board of Governors voted to expel him last week, according to a letter sent by his attorney, Harland Braun, to the academy on Tuesday.
Braun said in the letter the academy “has violated the basic standards of due process and deprived Mr. Polanski of a fair hearing.”
“We are not here contesting the merits of the expulsion decision, but rather your organization’s blatant disregard of its own Standards of Conduct, as well as its violations of the standards required by California Corporations Code,” the letter said.
Braun told the academy that Polanski wants to avoid a lawsuit but demanded the board rescind its “illegal expulsion” and give the filmmaker a hearing to present his position against expulsion.
So far, Braun told USA TODAY, he’s not heard from the academy. USA TODAY reached out Tuesday to the organization for comment.
The academy announced May 3 that Polanski, 84, and Bill Cosby, who was recently convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, had been expelled. It did not explain in its announcement why it waited four decades to act against Polanski, whose statutory rape case dates to 1978. He was a fugitive from justice at the time the academy awarded him an Oscar in 2003 for The Piano.
“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors met on (May 1) and has voted to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its membership in accordance with the organization’s Standards of Conduct,” read the academy statement. “The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity.”
Following the expulsion, Braun told USA TODAY that Polanski’s case was mishandled. He reiterated in his letter that he and Polanski had heard “rumors” the academy might be thinking of expelling him.
“We suspected something might be happening, and we were totally prepared, I’ve got all the documents, I could have presented them in less than an hour,” Braun told USA TODAY in a phone interview from Boston last week.
“The rules provide that (targets) have an opportunity to present their side and I was looking forward to presenting (Polanski’s) side,” he said. “It reflects very poorly on the academy that they would just do this” before hearing from the filmmaker.
The academy’s response is that the Board of Governors has the right to take action on any matter if it relates to a member’s status and standards of conduct, said Teni Melidonian, an academy spokeswoman.
“Per the academy’s bylaws, Article 10, Section 3: Any member of the academy may be suspended or expelled for cause by the Board of Governors. Expulsion or suspension as herein provided for shall require the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds of all the Governors.”
Melidonian confirmed to USA TODAY that Polanski’s Oscar would not be taken away.
Related: L.A. police probe claim Roman Polanski molested girl in ’75
Polanski, who received Oscar nominations for writing and directing throughout his career before winning best director for The Pianist, pleaded guilty to statutory rape of a 13-year-old and then fled the country in 1978.
Braun represents Polanski in his long-running, and so far unsuccessful, effort to get the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office to drop the 40-year-old case against Polanski.
The accuser, now 54, says she’s forgiven Polanski and thinks the case should end, but the Oscar-winning director remains a fugitive, unable to return to the U. S. without being jailed for rape and fleeing justice under an order issued by a Los Angeles judge in August.
The academy formalized new procedures for evaluating its membership earlier this year in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations sweeping Hollywood.
In an interview with the Polish edition of Newsweek published this week, and conducted prior to his expulsion, Polanski slammed the Me Too movement as “collective hysteria” and “total hypocrisy.”
He said people were adopting the hashtag unifying victims of sexual assault and harassment “chiefly out of fear.”
Braun said he has not read Polanski’s remarks and does not know if the filmmaker explicitly blames Me Too for the academy’s vote to expel him. But he said there’s always a chance of an “overreaction” in any mass movement to correct past wrongs in sex-abuse cases.
Contributing: Andrea Mandell and The Associated Press
