I don’t know why I feel obsessed by this story, but I am. In some ways I feel it is my feminist duty to remind people every time this guy gets the adoring press he always does that he is a rapist.

Roman Polanski’s got a new film Carnage that will open the NY Film Festival in NYC this weekend. Of course he won’t be in the US because he is still a wanted fugitive because he fled the US some 30 odd years ago after raping a 13 year young girl. I’m not going into the details of the story again. Everybody knows them. But just remember, he was charged with rape and admitted to “unlawful sex with a minor.”

He was in Zurich, Switzerland this week to accept a lifetime achievement award, the one that he was supposed to get two years ago when he was arrested in an attempt to finally get him back in the US.

Just to remind people, here’s part of what he said when he was under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting potential extradition to the US.

It is true: 33 years ago I pleaded guilty, and I served time at the prison for common law crimes at Chino, not in a VIP prison. That period was to have covered the totality of my sentence. By the time I left prison, the judge had changed his mind and claimed that the time served at Chino did not fulfill the entire sentence, and it is this reversal that justified my leaving the United States.

He decided that he was above the law and left.

He used the ceremony to premiere a new documentary about himself in conversation with Andrew Braunsberg and directed by Laurent Bouzereau. According to reports in the film Polanski apologizes to his victim Samantha Greimer publicly for the FIRST time, though he also blames the media for victimizing her too.

The guy makes great movies but he is still a major creep and that people fawn over him is beyond me. Lots of times you can separate the work from the person but for me and Polanski, I just can’t. I just think of all the girls and women who are victims of sexual assault watching this man live out his life in France, working at the top of his profession and receiving accolade after accolade.

But that’s Hollywood. They won’t hire you to direct a film if you have kids or if you are pregnant or if you have a uterus, but they will hire you if you are a rapist and a fugitive.

Does Being an “Artist” Trump Being a Rapist? (Women and Hollywood)

“Better late than never”: Polanski gets his award (Reuters)

Roman Polanski Apologizes To His Sexual Assault Victim In New Secret Doc Premiered In Zurich (The Playlist)