Roman Polanski Blasts #MeToo and Threatens to Sue Academy
*By Max Godnick*
Movie fans are used to hearing stars thank the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but it's rare for an Oscar winner to say he wants to sue it.
The Academy-award winning director Roman Polanski threatened to take legal action against the Academy after it voted May 3 to expel him from its ranks.
The expulsion comes more than 40 years after Polanski, the filmmaker behind "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown," pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, and 16 years since the Academy honored him as best director for "The Pianist."
Polanski's lawyer, Harland Braun, said in a letter to the Academy obtained by the [Hollywood Reporter] (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/roman-polanskis-attorney-threatens-sue-academy-directors-expulsion-1109821) that the Academy did not give his client a chance to argue his case.
The Academy revised its rules in January, with new guidelines for membership and standards of conduct after accusations of sexual assault and harassment against the Academy member Harvey Weinstein. The revelations about Weinstein's conduct led to the widespread #MeToo movement, which Polanski called "collective hysteria" and "total hypocrisy."
"I think that it's the height of hypocrisy for a known pedophile and a sex offender to disparage and criticize people that have come forward after being sexually abused by powerful people in the media and Hollywood," said Jennifer Cunningham, senior editor at the African-American-focused entertainment news site Bossip.
So why did it take the Academy so many years to take action?
"I think they did not have a choice at this point," said Cunningham, in an interview with Cheddar. "Especially with Bill Cosby's conviction, maybe they were just trying to clean house and really distance themselves from these individuals."
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Cosby and Polanski on the same day.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/bill-and-ted-reunite-for-a-threequel).
Bonnie Wright, who starred in the Harry Potter film series as Ginny Weasely, the youngest of the Weasely clan and Harry Potter’s love interest, is now an author and sustainability activist with her new book, "Go Gently: Actionable Steps to Nurture Yourself and the Planet," which focuses on how to change your habits to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Wright joined Cheddar News to discuss. "I wrote my book to really help to kind of bring the macro-scale system thinking down to our day-to-day life," she said. "They're actually tangible, quite resourceful, practical things that you can implement in your day-to-day life to just help you connect to these issues and just feel empowered when we feel pretty powerless within this situation."
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 19, 2022, with a federal judge voiding mask mandates on public transportation, updates from the Russia and Ukraine war, Mac Miller’s drug dealer sentenced for involvement in the rapper's death, and more.
The 1993 historical drama 'Schindler's List' tells the story of a Nazi party member who helped thousands of Polish Jewish refugees escape death during the Holocaust. Today, Ukrainians are living a very similar reality as Russia continues to invade, and refugees are fleeing for safety. Oliwia Dabrowska was three years old when she became an integral part of "Schindler's List." You'll remember her as "the little girl in the red coat" representing a symbol of hope. Today she's 32 years old living in Poland and once again representing hope for refugees. Dabrowska joins Cheddar News to discuss her experience and tell viewers how to help.
As TikTok grows in popularity, so does its ad revenue potential. Research firm Insider Intelligence forecasts the app's revenue will likely triple in 2022 to more than $11 billion, putting it past the sales of both Twitter and Snapchat combined. Cheddar News takes a closer look.
Snapchat has launched its first features to help users learn American Sign Language through its lenses and a game. The project was spearheaded by deaf and hard-of-hearing workers. Cheddar News was joined by Austin Vaday, software engineer at Snap, and his sign language interpreter, Jonathan Webb, to discuss the ASL Fingerspelling Lens and how the project came together. “We wanted to find a way to appropriately and properly educate the community so that folks can communicate with people like me using sign language," Vaday stated.
The new Netflix documentary "White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch" dives into how the once apparel retailer used an exclusionary business model, focusing on the "popular and cool kids," to thrive for years until its discriminatory culture and practices led to a consumer backlash. Anthony Ocampo, a professor of sociology at Cal Poly Pomona and former Abercrombie & Fitch employee, and Ben O’Keefe, a social change activist and head of diversity and impact production at Creator+, discussed the film and the retailer's rebranding in light of many allegations brought against it. "I got a job at Abercrombie & Fitch, and I worked there for a couple of weeks. But then when I went back to that same store after the academic year ended to get my job back, I was told by someone, I'm sorry, we can't rehire you because we already had too many Filipinos working at this store," Ocampo said.
Mona Shaikh, stand-up comedian and host of 'Minority Reportz,' joins Cheddar News to discuss her recent guest column in The Hollywood Reporter titled "Blame Louis C.K.'s Grammy Comeback on Comedy's Gatekeepers."
