An acclaimed French female TV director said filmmaker Roman Polanski — who's been on the run from the U.S. since 1977 after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl — couldn't be a rapist since "his wife is very beautiful" and his accusers are anti-Semitic.
The stunning statements came from Nadine Trintignant, 85, who spoke to the BFM news channel on Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported.
"His wife is very beautiful," she said in reference to Emmanuelle Seigner, who is 33 years younger than Polanski, the outlet reported. "Why would he look elsewhere? If it wasn't Roman Polanski, he'd be left in peace."
What's going on now?
Trintignant's statements came on the heels of an accusation last week from 62-year-old actress Valentine Monnier who said Polanski "violently raped" her when she was a teenager, the Daily Mail reported — after which Monnier received widespread support.
But not from Trintignant.
"I'm here to defend Roman Polanski, a huge director who has made about 15 masterpieces," she said, according to the outlet. "I find it very serious to bother him at this time when there is a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe."
Polanski — who comes from a Jewish background — was born in Paris and then survived the Nazi Holocaust in Poland, the Daily Mail said, adding that Trintignant said it's only because he's a "little Pole out of the ghetto" that others accuse him.
"He's a huge director, a smart man. He did something serious 44 years ago," she added in reference to Monnier's rape accusation against Polanski, the outlet said. "In 44 years, there have been thousands of women raped, and we do not know the names of the men who did these bad deeds. We leave them alone."
Trintignant also said in reference to Monnier's rape accusation that she "would tend to believe him over a woman who took 44 years to think to denounce him," the Daily Mail said.
A lawyer for Polanski has said his client "firmly denies all accusations of rape," the outlet added.
Anything else?
Monnier said she felt compelled to to tell her story after Polanski appeared to compare himself to Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer the French army wrongly persecuted as a spy at the turn of the 20th century, the Telegraph reported, and who is the subject of Polanski's new film "An Officer and a Spy."
Women's rights supporters on Tuesday night blocked a special advance screening of the film — whose French title is "J'Accuse (I Accuse)" — shouting "Polanski rapist" and brandishing banners saying "Polanski persecutes women," the Telegraph added. Last week Polanski's name hit the headlines when Donald Trump, Jr. on "The View" reminded co-host Whoopi Goldberg that she downplayed Polanski's rape admission in 2009 as not "rape-rape."