Six months after the exclusion of Harvey Weinstein, the Academy of Oscars has this Thursday removed the director Roman Polanski and the actor Bill Cosby.
"The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences met Tuesday night to vote to expel actor Bill Cosby and director Roman Polanski from its members, in accordance with its standards of good conduct," the academy's statement said. "The Council continues to encourage ethical standards that encourage its members to conform to the values of respect for human dignity."
The American institution therefore inflicts the same fate as Weinstein on the Franco-Polish director and the African-American actor, both under the blow of sex scandals.
You should know that nearly six months ago, the 7th Art adopted an anti-harassment code and in the wake of the #metoo earthquake, the Academy of Oscars had to get up to speed.
As a result, the organization expelled two of its most controversial members, namely French-Polish director Roman Polanski, convicted of statutory rape forty years ago, and television star Bill Cosby, on multiple sexual assault charges.
It is clear that these two personalities were in the hot seat since the exclusion in October of Harvey Weinstein especially when the New York Times and the New Yorker had revealed the extent of the rapes and abuses committed by Polanski.
These radiations come even as Bill Cosby, star adored by Americans for his character of ideal father in the series Cosby Show, was found guilty last Thursday of sexual assault in 2004 on former basketball player Andrea Constand. Cosby faces up to thirty years in prison. He will then know his sentence within three months. It is noted that dozens of other women have accused him of having abused them for facts dating back some more than thirty years.
Roman Polanski's troubles with the American justice system date back to the 70s. In 1977, the filmmaker was convicted of statutory rape for having relations in 1973 with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. That single charge was the result of an out-of-court settlement, after Polanski was initially charged with more serious charges, including rape under the influence of drugs.
Following a reversal by the judge, which risked sentencing him to a much heavier sentence than expected, Polanski fled the United States. Several attempts to extraditions from American justice have failed, but the producer's position has become increasingly precarious in recent years. In 2017, he had to give up the presidency of the Césars following the mobilization of the association Osez le féminisme. It is recalled that a tribute dedicated to him at the Cinémathèque had also spilled a lot of ink.
However, a position taken seems somewhat curious to us… Indeed, his victim Samantha Geimer, who has forgiven him and asks for the dismissal of the prosecution, denounced a hypocritical posture. According to her, "The Oscars expel a member who has served his sentence, it is an ugly and cruel measure that serves appearances." "It doesn't change the sexist culture of Hollywood today. It just shows that they would devour theirs to survive," she added.
Polanski's lawyer regretted to Variety that the Academy did not offer his client the opportunity to defend himself. For him, "the institution sends a very bad signal when it rejects someone without having all the elements at its disposal". On Twitter, netizens mocked the four decades it took the Academy to reach such a decision.
Until the Weinstein affair, being expelled from the Academy was almost unprecedented. Indeed, only the actor Carmine Caridi, seen in The Godfather, suffered such a sanction for having distributed without authorization DVDs of films nominated for the Oscars. But will Caridi, Weinstein, Polanski and Cosby be the only ones to be punished? How far will the Academy go? Indeed, several of its star members such as Kevin Spacey, Mel Gibson, Paul Haggis or Dustin Hoffman have been accused of sexual abuse. As for Woody Allen, whose dismissal is demanded on social networks, experts from Hollywood Reporter and Variety believe that the New York filmmaker has always refused to join the Academy.
This penalty, however heavy it may be, seems totally understandable to us. It is part of an effort to combat sexual harassment. Now that the movement is over, a question arises: how far will the Academy of Oscars go in taking its sanctions?
