Misogynist Crank of the Day

"A. She Was A Who-were."

I'm surprised Farley -- whose contempt for the man of letters in question might exceed my own -- didn't beat me to this. But via Edroso, academy of the overrated charter member Gore Vidal shares some of his legendary wit on the subject of child rape:

In September, director Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland for leaving the U.S. in 1978 before being sentenced to prison for raping a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson’s house in Hollywood. During the time of the original incident, you were working in the industry, and you and Polanski had a common friend in theater critic and producer Kenneth Tynan. So what’s your take on Polanski, this many years later?

I really don’t give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she’s been taken advantage of?

I’ve certainly never heard that take on the story before.

First, I was in the middle of all that. Back then, we all were. Everybody knew everybody else. There was a totally different story at the time that doesn’t resemble anything that we’re now being told.

What do you mean?

The media can’t get anything straight. Plus, there’s usually an anti-Semitic and anti-fag thing going on with the press – lots of crazy things. The idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel all in white, being raped by this awful Jew, Polacko – that’s what people were calling him – well, the story is totally different now from what it was then.

I can't actually say I'm surprised to hear these sentiments expressed by this prominent "leftist" rather than by a reactionary Alberta judge, but wow. (Trying to pretend that poor Roman was unfairly persecuted for raping a 13-year-old because of homophobia, though, might embarrass even Anne Applebaum.)