Emmanuelle Seigner, Polanski's wife, refuses to join the Academy of Oscars

She intends to defend her husband at all costs. French actress Emmanuelle Seigner announces she refuses to join the Academy of Oscars to protest against the exclusion by this organization of her husband, the director Roman Polanski, in an open letter published by the Journal du dimanche .

"The American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Cinema offers me to join it, along with other actresses, in the name of a feminization also necessary. Who can believe that I do not feel concerned by the equality of women and men? "(19659004)" Unbearable hypocrisy!

"Feminist, I have always been, but how can I pretend to ignore that the Academy, a few weeks ago, kicked out my husband, Roman Polanski, to satisfy the air time. The same Academy had awarded him the Oscar for best director for The Pianist in 2003. Curious amnesia! "

" This Academy probably thinks that I am a sufficiently up-and-down actress, without character, to forget that she has been married for twenty-nine years to one of the greatest directors. I love him, he is my husband, the father of my children. He is rejected as an outcast and unseen academicians think I could "climb the steps of glory" behind his back? Unbearable hypocrisy! "

Polanski" regrets what happened forty years ago "

Calling this proposal" insulting ", she claims to be" the only one able to testify to how much he (Polanski) regrets what happened forty years ago. "
Roman Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to the embezzlement of a minor for having an illegal relationship with a 13-year-old girl. After an amicable settlement, more serious charges including the rape of a 13-year-old drug-stricken minor were dropped.

The Academy's Board of Governors announced on May 3 last the expulsion of Polanski and the fallen comedian Bill Cosby, sentenced for badual badault. The decision complied with the new code of conduct adopted by the prestigious institution, in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein affair.

"Roman is in no way this machismo caricature, a symptom of the evil that ravages the cinema," concludes 52 years old actress. Following the deportation, Polanski's US lawyer, Harlan Braun, threatened to sue the Academy, ruling that she had failed to comply with the proceedings in the absence of a hearing. customer.