Actions have consequences but…

“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors met on Tuesday night (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. The Board continues to encourage ethical standards that require members to uphold the Academy’s values of respect for human dignity.”

My only comment, which I shared with a friend, was “did they really have to couple Polanski with Cosby?”

To which she replied, “Rapist, rapist. It’s how the Academy sees it and all of the shrieking mob chasing after them.”

And I said, “Okay, but Cosby’s criminality was far more odious. Decades of persistent, diabolical and premeditated rape with the use of sedatives and Mickey Finns. Polanski wasn’t on that level. Not even close.” She answered, “Please don’t make me argue the Academy’s side. I don’t agree with what they’ve done here. Unless they’re going to start handing out Oscars for Best Picture “made by people whose entire lives have been vetted and okayed under our strict rules for conduct, going all the way back to the time of their childhoods.”

She added, “Polanski wouldn’t have been mentioned today had it not been for Samantha Geimer. He did it once. His victim forgives him, blames the press. He gets no amount of slack for having his parents murdered by Nazis and his pregnant wife stabbed to death by a gang of creepy, crawling Manson family members, after which the press accused him of doing it. No slack at all for having lived through that kind of horror? There is no excusing what he did. But Geimer has moved on. Why can’t everyone else?”