The 1977 case against Roman Polanski comes to mind. The famous Hollywood director was 43 years old when he was accused of six counts of raping a 13 year-old girl. Long before the days of #MeToo, the evidence was staggering and the accusations heavy, and included: "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14"… This sort of case could be — and SHOULD be — career-ending if proven true. And it was true — Polanski did not deny having sex with the girl. He instead offered a plea, saying that while he did have sex with the underaged child, he did not drug her nor commit sodomy on her, hoping to lessen the charges against him. Polanski posted bail, and walked free. When he learned the judge was going to reject his plea and he might have to serve some serious time for his crime, Roman Polanski fled the country, leaving America and heading for Paris, France. He’s stayed there ever since, never again enterting America and avoiding countries that might extradite him. Polanski went on to direct many famous movies, such as the Acadamy Award winning The Pianist starring Adrien Brody. There has been a lot of attempts over the years to rebuild Polanski’s reputation in Hollywood and rehabilate his broken image. One particularly infamous letter in support of him had a LOT of famous names signed on — Natalie Portman, for example. Darren Arronofsky. Woody Allen (of course!) and Harrison Ford, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam… Monica Belucci, Martin Scorcese, Sam Mendes, the list is endless. Some of these names are disappointing. Others surprising due to the bare faced hypocrisy — Asia Argento being one of the actresses famous for bringing #MeToo to light, having accused Weinstein of abusing her. But when it’s a rapist you know and are fond of personally its different, isn’t it? Many stars have come to Polanski’s aid in open letters and opinion pieces. Saying it is time to “forgive him”. Why such double standards? There was no forgiveness for others accused in the #MeToo era but being 89 years old and a beloved director, different rules seem to apply for Mr. Polanski. It’s why I cannot take Hollywood’s virtue signalling regarding abuse cases seriously at all.