How to win an Oscar...

1) commit a despicable crime;

2) run away from the authorities;

3) elude capture for more than 20 years;

4) persuade idiots to support your cause;

5) reap the benefits.

Here's to you, Roman Polanski. May you sleep well despite who-knows-what you have done to helpless victims. [:(]

It is the job of the Academy to award prizes to the best films of the year. Sometimes the Academy fails to do so and gives away its commendations to popular lightweight fluff like TITANIC, but this year they got it right in rewarding Polanski. THE PIANIST should have won Best Picture, too, it was that good.

In the end we either love the art or we don't. I love movies, and I choose not to be blinded by politics or propaganda.

John, Idiot Cause Supporter

I feel bad for Scorsese. He actually fought for this one. Went to all the talk shows promoting GONY, which he has never done b4 with his earlier movies.

What can I say, people love notoriety.....

Let me put it another way, Eddie.

If tomorrow you find out that Spielberg has committed a heinous felony, would you throw all his movies away in disgust and vow never to see another film by him again?

Art and personal indiscretions/politics should be seperated.

I loathe what Polanski did but his works can still be appreciated away from the glare of his personal problems.

John,

Suppose you found a beautiful painting one day while combing through the streets of Vienna, Austria. To your surprise, you discover that Adolf Hitler created it before his rise to power in Germany. Are you sure that you will hail it as a masterpiece without at least adding the fact that it was painted by Hitler? Likewise, to separate the man from the man's work is like saying that The Pianist could have existed independently of Polanski's criminal past. I can't make the separation. Sorry.

Eddie

You have to make a separation, Eddie. No artist in the history of the world is without sin, public or private. To condemn an artist's work for the indiscretions of his private life is to condemn all art.

John

Eddie, did I mention you were not entitled to your own opinion? [:(]

And it's true, the man should at least live up to his responsibility and face the music. It can be disheartening to see famous people get away with things that most of us won't be able to.

Dear John and Hock,

I would not throw away my Spielberg DVDs, but I would no longer put them on a separate shelf. In all seriousness, I have my Spielberg DVDs displayed separately from my other movies. If he were to become a despicable criminal, then I would treat him as such on a personal level.

Look, I'm not saying that the people who we admire have to be squeaky clean. Peter O'Toole, a fave of mine, is a notorious hell-raiser, but his indiscretions do not call for the tsk-tsking that Polanski's do. I admire many of Polanski's movies, but I think that his actions as a person merit some sort of censure in my mind.

Besides, according to one of your other posts, I'm entitled to my opinion, right, Hock? :-)

Eddie