The Girl in the Red Dress Is Not Sharon, Sharon on Vintage Tabloid Magazine, New Auction for Sharon and Roman Pic, Roman Polanski and Sigourney Weaver Rumors? And some great photos from ebay this week.

A nice girl sent me this lobby card she has from "Rosemary's Baby" showing the supposed 'girl in the red dress' that has been rumored to be Sharon since it was indicated on the Internet Movie Database some time ago.  However, if you look closely you'll see this is not Sharon.

A sexy photo of Sharon is seen here on this page:

http://www.pulpinternational.com/pulp/entry/National-Bulletin-with-Sharon-Tate-and-original-handout-shot-circa-1968.html

Here's a new auction for photo of Sharon and Roman:

It's the one above.

http://www.artnet.com/AUCTIONS/Pages/Lots/42615.aspx?q=SearchIn%3DPhotographs%26sortby%3Dsoonest%26scroll%3D95%26page%3D1%26view%3Dfull

Here is a nice autographed vintage letter from Sharon that went for $3, 909.00! :

Polanski and Sigourney Weaver had an affair?

http://www.showbizspy.com/article/225842/sigourney-weaver-loved-roman-polanski-rumors.html

And here are some great photos that have been on Ebay recently:

Hope everyone is doing okay! ;)

Photo of the Week and More on the Polanski Case

Here is the lovely photo of the week from our contributor, Andrea!  Thanks so much!

And things are not looking good for Polanski, although he hasn't completely given up yet:

Polanski absentia bid dismissed by California court

Agence France-Presse April 23, 2010

LOS ANGELES – A California appeals court Thursday quashed a bid by Roman Polanski to be tried in absentia for his child sex case, clearing the way for the director to be extradited back to the United States.

California's 2nd District Court of Appeal tossed an appeal filed by Polanski's legal team following a hearing in January, where the film-maker's request to be sentenced without having to return from Europe was denied.

The appellate court panel found that Polanski had "failed to demonstrate" that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza had lacked the discretion to deny the director's earlier absentia request.

Dismissal of the appeal removes another obstacle from the path of Los Angeles prosecutors seeking sentencing of infamous Oscar-winning director Polanski, 76, in his decades-old child sex abuse case.

Polanski is under house arrest in Switzerland following his detention last September on a US arrest warrant for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Swiss officials said in February that a decision on whether to move forward with Polanski's extradition could not be made until the director had exhausted his US appeals.

Authorities in Switzerland have however emphasized that any extradition process could take about a year once likely appeals by Polanski against his return had been heard by Switzerland's highest courts.

Earlier Thursday, the same California appeals court dismissed a motion by the victim in the case who had sought to have the proceedings dismissed.

The petition, filed on behalf of Samantha Geimer, was "summarily denied by order," court documents showed.

Geimer's attorney, Lawrence Silver, filed court papers last month asking the court to intervene based on alleged judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

"Samantha Geimer was first victimized by Polanski. Whatever harm was done to her 33 years ago by Polanski is now a memory," Silver wrote.

In a 12-page response, prosecutors countered that Geimer "has no right or authority to dictate the outcome of a criminal case, nor is she entitled to examine evidence possessed either by the prosecution or the defense."

In January, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza denied requests by Polanski and Geimer to dismiss the case, along with a request by Geimer to order prosecutors to withdraw their extradition request for Polanski.

Polanski is alleged to have given Geimer champagne and drugs during a 1977 photo shoot at the Hollywood Hills home of actor friend Jack Nicholson before having sex with her despite her protests.

The director was initially charged with six felony counts, including rape and sodomy. The charge was later reduced to unlawful sexual intercourse after a plea deal agreed in part to spare his victim the ordeal of a trial.

Polanski later served 42 days at a secure unit undergoing psychiatric evaluation but fled the United States on the eve of his sentencing in 1978 amid fears that the trial judge planned to go back on a previously agreed plea deal.

Polanski's flight from justice came after a string of hit films including "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown."

The director, whose wife Sharon Tate was horrifically murdered by Charles Manson's "family" in 1969, won an Oscar for his 2002 film "The Pianist" but was unable to collect the award because of his fugitive status.

Polanski has been confined at his ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad since being released from custody December 4.

Here is another article that says he will fight the extradition:

Polanski Will Fight Extradition, Lawyers Say

LA Weekly April 23, 2010

By Dennis Romero

Despite Thursday's setback in which a state appeals court turned down his request to be sentenced while he remains overseas, Roman Polanski said through his lawyers Friday that he will challenge attempts by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office to have him extradited from Switzerland.

Yesterday's ruling might have been the end of the line for the director's attempts to live a European life outside the reach of his 33-year-old sex-with-a-minor case: Swiss officials said they would not extradite him to L.A. until the sentencing matter was decided. Well, it's been decided. But attorney Douglas Dalton released a statement on behalf of Polanski that reads, in part, "The Court of Appeal decision yesterday did not decide the issue of extradition."

Besides bringing up an allegation of misconducted in the original 1977 trial, in which a prosecutor is accused of having inappropriately influenced the late judge in the case behind closed doors, Dalton did not say what further recourse Polanski's legal team would have in holding off extradition.

The director fled to France in 1978 after he says prosecutors reneged on a plea deal and the judge indicated he would serve more time than the more than 40 days he spent in psychiatric evaluation for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He hasn't been back to L.A. since, but the D.A.'s office caught wind of a trip he had planned to Switzerland last summer to pick up an award and had him picked up. Polanski has been under house arrest at his Swiss chalet since December.

Sharon Tate: Aquarius, Rosemary's Baby Remembered and No, This Art is Definitely Not Sharon!

I recall an interview I reprinted here awhile ago where Sharon said, "I'm an Aquarius and Aquarians get along with everyone."

So what type of person is an Aquarian?

http://www.astrology-online.com/aquarius.htm

Aquarians basically possess strong and attractive personalities. They fall into two principle types: one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient; the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the considerable depths of their character under a cloak of frivolity. Both types are strong willed and forceful in their different ways and have strong convictions, though as they seek truth above all things, they are usually honest enough to change their opinions, however firmly held, if evidence comes to light which persuades them that they have been mistaken. They have a breadth of vision that brings diverse factors into a whole, and can see both sides of an argument without shilly-shallying as to which side to take. Consequently they are unprejudiced and tolerant of other points of view. This is because they can see the validity of the argument, even if they do not accept it themselves. They obey the Quaker exhortation to "Be open to truth, from whatever source it comes," and are prepared to learn from everyone.


Both types are humane, frank, serious minded, genial, refined, sometimes ethereal, and idealistic, though this last quality is tempered with a sensible practicality. They are quick, active and persevering without being self-assertive, and express themselves with reason, moderation and sometimes, a dry humor.


They are nearly always intelligent, concise, clear and logical. Many are strongly imaginative and psychically intuitive, so that the Age of Aquarius, which is about to begin, is much anticipated by psychic circles as an age in which mankind will experience a great spiritual awakening. The Aquarian philosophical and spiritual bent may be dangerous in that it can drive the subjects into an ivory-tower existence where they meditate on abstractions that bear little relevance to life. On the other hand it can help the many who have scientific leanings to combine these with the Aquarian yearning for the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man, and to embark on scientific research to fulfill their philanthropic ideals of benefiting mankind. When some cause or work of this nature inspires them, they are capable of such devotion to it that they may drive themselves to the point of exhaustion and even risk injuring their health.


Both types need to retire from the world at times and to become temporary loners. They appreciate opportunities for meditation or, if they are religious, of retreats. Even in company they are fiercely independent, refusing to follow the crowd. They dislike interference by others, however helpfully intended, and will accept it only on their own terms. Normally they have good taste in drama, music and art, and are also gifted in the arts, especially drama.


In spite of the often intensely magnetic, forthcoming and open personality of the more extrovert kind of Aquarian, and of their desire to help humanity, neither type makes friends easily. They sometimes appear to condescend to others and take too little trouble to cultivate the acquaintance of people who do not particularly appeal to them.

They do not give themselves easily - perhaps their judgment of human nature is too good for that - and are sometimes accounted cold. But once they decide that someone is worthy of their friendship or love, they can exert an almost hypnotic and irresistible mental attraction on them and will themselves become tenacious friends or lovers, ready to sacrifice everything for their partners and be faithful to them for life. However, they are sometimes disappointed emotionally because their own high personal ideals cause them to demand more of others than is reasonable. And if they are deceived their anger is terrible. If disillusioned, they do not forgive.


Aquarians work best in group projects, provided that they are recognized as having a leading part in them. They have a feeling of unity with nature and a desire for knowledge and truth that makes them admirable scientists, especially astronomers and natural historians. They may excel in photography, radiography, electronics - anything connected with the electrical and radio industries - aviation and everything technical. On the arts and humanities side their progressive tendencies can be expressed in writing, especially poetry, and broadcasting, or as welfare workers and teachers. Some have gifts as entertainers and make good character actors (having an ability to mimic) and musicians. The more psychic among them possess healing gifts, especially in curing the mentally sick.


Among the faults to which they are liable are fanatical eccentricity, wayward egotism, excessive detachment and an inclination to retreat from life and society, and a tendency to be extremely dogmatic in their opinions. Aquarians can be a threat to all they survey or a great boon for humanity in general. Circumstances - for example, continuous opposition to a cause they hold dear - may cause the atrophy of the openness of mind that is one of the Aquarian's most attractive traits. They may express a lack of integrity in broken promises, secretiveness or cunning. Simmering anger and resentment, rudeness or, worse, a tense, threatening silence which may suddenly burst out in eruptions of extreme temper, these are all part of the negative side of the Aquarian. This can also reveal itself in a sustained hatred for enemies that is capable of enlarging itself into a misanthropy toward the whole of mankind.

Traits:


Friendly and humanitarian


Honest and loyal


Original and inventive


Independent and intellectual


LIKES


Fighting for Causes


Dreaming and Planning for the Future


Thinking of the Past


Good Companions


Having Fun


What problems can arise for Aquarians?


Problem: You always seem to miss the boat when it comes to love.


Solution: Try letting down the mental guard that you keep on your emotions that stops you from being the self you long to be.


Problem: You always seem to miss out on the better jobs or big promotions at work.


Solution: Learn to use your positive side in teamwork and group effort, the lone wolf approach will get you nowhere.


Funny, I also do recall one of Sharon's quotes that she said about herself in high school that she "was a lone wolf."

Mia Farrow, Sharon and Roman's great friend.

Here is a site where "Rosemary's Baby" is remembered with a trailer for the film along with some interesting facts:

http://goremaster.com/blog/2010/04/20/rosemarys-baby-released-june-12-1968/

And if this person is asking if this is Sharon, it is clearly not! Don't you agree? :

http://fineartbuyer.org/original-oil-painting-sharon-tate-signed-inscribed/3235

Debra Tate's New Blog, Another Star of the 1960s passes, Sharon as an Avatar? and More on Polanski

Debra Tate has started her own Blog called Tate Foundation.  It has video links, biographies of Sharon, her mother Doris, and sister Patti.  It will have more included in the future and it has a link to The Doris Tate Crime Victims Foundation.  Here is the link:

http://tatefoundation.com/?q=node/8

Another star of the 1960s passed away, Actor Fess Parker.  He is best known as TV's Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.  He and Sharon are both noted for doing public service announcements for the NRA on the conservation side of that group.  Other stars included: Ed Ames, Walter Brennan, Slim Pickens, and on the lighter side funny accents from Sebastion Cabot and Ricardo Montalban.

I decided to do this fun thing. You can go to this site and make yourself into an avatar just like the ones in James Cameron's film:

http://www.avatarizeyourself.com/

She looks just as beautiful as a blue person ;)

I uploaded Sharon to see what she would look like ;)  Please go to this link and her eyes move but give it a minute to upload...

http://www.avatarizeyourself.com/?mId=35546560.2

If you can't see it let me know and I'll email it to you. :)

Here is Roman discussing "Rosemary's Baby" and his great loss of Sharon:

http://www.amctv.com/videos/smso/?bcpid=353549892&bclid=1740033355&bctid=909829177

New Update on the Polanski case:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/movies/19polanski.html

Photo of the Week, The Last Part of the Translated Article: Sharon Tate wanted to eventually have a baby girl, and More on Polanski

Photo of the Week:

Sharon looking as beautiful as ever.

Here is the last part of the Translated Article:
L'Europeo August 21, 1969
My meeting with Sharon Tate
by Adriano Botta

(Warning: take some of this part with a large grain of salt...)

Photos from the actual magazine I got this article from.

Sharon Tate caught her breath, as the "bunnies" continued to deploy rose petals that they knew had hashish and brought a giant wedding cake on which was written: 'Enough with stripping, Elda!' There was a laugh by contortions. Roman Polanski stopped drinking whiskey and promoted an investigation. He learned as he copied the voice of Groucho Marx that the pastry chef had mistaken the cake by sending it to them.  Instead it was intended for a stripper at the Playboy Club that was retiring. "I have only now begun to perform in stripping," said Sharon, making a joke of it. "That will become increasingly good at becoming essential in my eroticism. Could I really become the Marilyn Monroe of the seventies?  Not in the Martin Ransohoff way. I want to be a type of Monroe who, with her eroticism set the world on fire without burning it.Yes, I will continue to undress. In a I could be undressed forever. If only to die soon in a satanic way*. I adore the way of working and living that has Roman's genius written all over it. There is an absolutely horrible sense of hypocrisy in the world. I am shocked.  Too bad for them. I and Roman have been a pair for about three years and we did not get married and it did not bother me at all. Marriage is a bourgeois convention. How important is marriage? If two people love each other and do get along well together why should they have to marry to make everyone else happy? For three years I've been with Roman and Hollywood is shocked? To bad for them.  They don't understand.  I stay away from Hollywood as best I can.  I've had it with the whole of Hollywood and its false puritanism. It is no longer the Mecca of cinema but more of a graveyard of the past studio system. I prefer London and Rome to Hollywood. "

"Why did you get married then?" someone asked. Sharon replied, "We said why not have a wedding?  The idea of it was fun. And the wedding reception at the Playboy Club was well worth the effort of a formal ceremony like marriage but it does not change anything. We are like a middle class couple, we strive to make sacrifices for each other and to encourage each other. There is no duty or restriction imposed on each other. And we often forget even to be married. I want to have children, yes. I'd like a girl. And I wish that she inherits my looks."

 
Sharon Tate is dead in Hollywood, in the cemetery of the old studio heads from which she was intended to flee. And she died like in a film by Roman Polanski, hanging from a cord of nylon, the beautiful body pierced by daggers.  And she died with four others, one of whom was also her ex-lover, the hairdresser of the stars, Jay Sebring.  He was stabbed and his head wrapped in a black hood. A morbid aggression, a crime that is crazy and repeated two days later, a few miles away, in another villa, two Italian spouses killed with the same ferocity and the same technique, with the same left written on the walls, 'pigs.' Two crimes like the demonic films inspired by the fantasy reminiscent of Polanski.  The face of America now bitter and dark. Sharon Tate was twenty six years old. She was to give birth to a baby in four weeks. Even Polanski has fallen to such a degree of shame with his cruel curse of literature.

*This sentence makes no sense with the rest of what Sharon is talking about.  And why would anyone say that anyway?  The only thing I can think of is that the reporter heard about the rumors of a possible santanic murder and added that comment to go along with it. I think a lot of reporters added this kind of thing for sensationalism. 
 
And it sounds like the reporter also went along with the Polanski makes macabre films so it imitates his life.  Like it is his fault for making movies like "Rosemary's Baby" that is the reason why he deserves this suffering in real life. 
 
Like I said, this kind of thing must be taken with a large grain of salt.
 
On a better note, here is a person who is trying to watch 1001 Greatest Movies of all time and reviews Polanski's "Chinatown." :
 
http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2010/02/separating-man-from-his-art.html
 

More on working with Polanski by The Ghost Writers stars Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor:
 
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/earlyshow/leisure/boxoffice/main6219911.shtml
 
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/ewan-mcgregor-praises-ghost-writer-director-roman-polanski/story?id=9873344
 
http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2010/02/18/pierce-brosnan-interview-the-ghost-writer/
 
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Ewan-McGregor-17134.html

http://wonderwall.msn.com/movies/polanski-picked-on-mcgregors-accent-1538837.story

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Photo of the Week ,The Latest on Polanski and The Ghost Writer

From one of our contributors, Andrea, here is the photo of the week:

Thanks Andrea!  Great photo!

Roman Polanski News:

Polanski film debuts, Swiss vow no extradition yet

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=458291>1=28101
 
GENEVA (AP) -- Friday was a banner day for director Roman Polanski: His new film premiered in Berlin and Swiss authorities pledged not to extradite him to the U.S. as long as his appeal on a sex case was still being considered in Los Angeles.
 
Compared to the last four months being under arrest in Switzerland, it was a win-win.
 
Polanski could not walk the red carpet at the Berlin film festival Friday night for the debut of his movie "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, because he is under house arrest. But he was still the star of the party, feted by the movie's actors, producer and screenplay writer.
 
And in a new twist to his long legal saga, the Swiss Justice Ministry declared it would make "no sense" to shift Polanski from house arrest at his Alpine chalet until U.S. courts ruled definitively that he must be sentenced in person to further jail time for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
 
"When the question is still open, why should he be extradited?" Rudolf Wyss, the ministry's deputy director, told The Associated Press. "As long as the question is still open, our decision depends on that."

"Even if we decide on extradition, he can still appeal. This would take many months," Wyss added.

Polanski's extradition is a complicated and diplomatically sensitive decision, as it deals with a three-decade-old case full of alleged wrongdoing by a Los Angeles judge, a confused sentencing procedure and the director's own flight from justice.

The official movie poster for the film.

There is also Polanski's status as a cultural icon in France and Poland, where he holds dual citizenship, and his history as a Holocaust survivor whose first wife was brutally murdered by crazed followers of cult leader Charles Manson in California.

Loyola University law Professor Laurie Levenson, who has followed the case closely, said the next move appears to be up to Polanski, who has the option to waive extradition.

"The Swiss authorities want to know what Polanski's sentence will be and the Los Angeles courts won't tell them until he comes back. It's a bit of a standoff."

She said that Polanski can keep fighting extradition, but will remain under house arrest indefinitely.

"Mr. Polanski may be able to sit in his Swiss chalet forever," she said. "But if he wants to get out he may have to come back and be sentenced by the California court even though he might get a sentence that would not have required him to come back in the first place. This is a chicken and egg problem."

Polanski's lawyers say the 76-year-old filmmaker served his full sentence in 1978 when he underwent a court-ordered diagnostic study at a California prison for 42 days. Los Angeles courts have disagreed and Polanski's lawyers have promised to appeal in their hopes to have him sentenced in absentia or have the case dropped.

Swiss legal experts said it looked increasingly possible that the Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" could beat extradition.

"The chance has increased, especially as he's been here for such a long time," said Dieter Jann, a former Zurich prosecutor. "It's not even clear if the Americans want him anymore."

Wyss spoke to The AP hours before a press conference in Berlin to unveil Polanski's newest film based on a novel by Robert Harris, in which Brosnan stars as former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, a character likened to Tony Blair, and McGregor plays a reporter hired to help write his memoirs.

The movie, Polanski's first since "Oliver Twist" in 2005, was nearly finished when he was arrested Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival. The director kept working on the film during his two months in a Swiss jail and later under house arrest in his chalet in the luxury Swiss resort of Gstaad, after he posted $4.5 million bail in December and agreed to wear an electronic ankle monitor.

"It's a great pity he's not here to launch the film with us, because I feel like he's as responsible for my performance in this film as I am," McGregor said at the press conference in Berlin, where the cast largely steered clear of the director's legal issues.

"Roman continued to work on the film through courier packages that we sent to him in prison," producer Robert Benmussa said in Berlin. "Then, when he was in his chalet, he continued to work on the movie, putting the last touches."

"The Ghost Writer," based on the novel by Robert Harris, is one of 20 films competing for the Berlin festival's top Golden Bear honor, being awarded Feb. 20.

Harris, who wrote the screenplay along with Polanski, said director had been keen to shift gears and make a thriller. "The Ghost Writer" is the story of a former leader dogged by allegations that he allowed the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists.

"(Polanski wanted) to do another 'Chinatown'-like movie where the plot gradually unfolds, and I think that that above all was what drew him to it," Harris said. "He wanted to tell a story, and his greatest insult, I discovered, was 'an arthouse movie.'"

Polanski lost a bid last month to be sentenced in Los Angeles without returning when a judge ruled that he must be present in court if he wanted to resolve the case. Referring to Polanski as a fugitive from justice, Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza said he was acting to protect "the dignity of the court."

Polanski's attorneys have until late March to file an appeal. His lawyer in California, Chad Hummel, would not comment on the Swiss justice ministry's statement Friday.

Polanski can also avoid being returned to Los Angeles if a court there rules that he doesn't have to face further punishment, or if the amount of additional time he is sentenced to is less than six months.

Los Angeles prosecutors say Polanski is subject to a sentence of two years. His defense counters that the director has already served a sentence handed down by the original Los Angeles judge and spent over four months under arrest in Switzerland.

While the legal wrangling has been difficult to follow, the facts of the case are less contested.

Polanski was initially accused of raping the girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a 1977 modeling shoot. He was indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.

In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sent him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. The evaluator released Polanski after 42 days, but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the remaining time.

Polanski then fled the U.S. on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be formally sentenced. He has lived since in France, which does not extradite its citizens.

Roman Polanski and Pierce Brosnan Talk Love, Loss and Sharon Tate, A Review of Valley of the Dolls and More

Pierce Brosnan was interviewed recently and said he and Polanski had discussed Sharon and the loss of loved ones.  Brosnan himself lost his own first wife, Cassandra, to ovarian cancer.  She died in his arms, no less and one day after their 11th Anniversary on December 20, 1991.  He, like Polanski has since married again.

He has said of Cassie: "Cassie has made me the man I am, the actor I am, the father I am. She's forever embedded in every fiber of my being."

Roman has seemingly been as impressed by his time with Sharon.  He never forgets her and remembers always how special she was.


http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/08/pierce-brosnan-on-polanski-percy-and-r-patz/

Cinematical: How did you get involved with The Ghost Writer?

Pierce Brosnan: Well, I was in London, I think wrapping up Mamma Mia! or doing something like that on that movie. My agent said, "Roman Polanski would like to meet you. He's doing a movie." And I said, "Great!" And I hopped on the train over to Paris. I was with my son who's 26, Sean, and my mother, and I said, "Do you want to come to Paris for the weekend?" And that's how it happened. I got over there on a Saturday morning, my son and my mother went off 'round the city, and he and I sat and had the most long, long, long lunch and we talked briefly about the movie and established that I wasn't doing Tony Blair, and once we established that, then we talked about everything else but the movie.

Wow, what's it like to be a fly on the wall during a lunch like that?

PB: We talked about life, we talked about our losses in life. We talked a little bit about Sharon [Tate], and the deep loss and the deep pain that he still... It was a very kind of man-to-man talk. [We talked] about children. We talked about movies, making movies, the economy of movies; country, travel, food. It was very delightful – most, most charming. I did go home on the train and I thought, "God, maybe he might not want me for the job! [laughs] Maybe he might change his mind!" A director told me when I was starting out, he said, "You're always going to have to test for someone." So no matter whether you've got an Oscar or two Oscars in your back pocket, there's gonna be someone, sometime that you just have to test for. But anyway, we got on very well, and then I didn't see him until my first day on the set in Berlin.

I was under the impression that in the book, your character Adam Lang was supposed to be a thinly veiled version of Tony Blair. I thought yours had a twist of George W. Bush in there as well.

PB: Well, I certainly didn't go to Bush within it; I kept front and foremost Tony Blair and [David] Cameron and those people, and the rest was just me and my imagination – what if I were a Prime Minister and first and foremost, the great pretender, the great [performer]? And the vortex and the crisis that this man is in at this point in his life and the sham of his life and his leadership – that's what intrigued me.

Once I was off the hook, and I realized that I wasn't going to be doing a Tony Blair impersonation or trying to be like Tony Blair – Michael Sheen had already done that – you know, I just had great fun with it. There was a real sense of irony to the character, and there was humor, and I'd like to think there was some heart to the man, and that his life was a bit of a sham, really, and he knows it and he knows that he's absolutely hamstrung without his wife, and to... have so little to really fight for, that's what kind of I tried to bring to the work... Once the camera starts rolling, the performance starts pouring out of him -- the populist [who] wanted to be charming, wanted to be loved and to be witty, but absolutely has no f*ckin' idea how to run a country. Absolutely none whatsoever. A total puppet. A total puppet.

What's interesting is that it's a very timely movie politically but it has an old Hollywood drama and moodiness to it from the very first shot. Did you feel that tension on set? Everything was very gloomy, and everything was very dramatic.

PB: Well, you know, Roman comes with a lot of legend, and baggage with legend written all over it – as a filmmaker, as a man, as a controversial figure in life. And it was fairly palpable on the set... We wanted bad weather, we got bad weather. The style of filmmaking is a throwback – in style, in composition, in pacing -- to the '70s, maybe. He hasn't made a thriller – he's never made a political thriller – so here he is doing his first political thriller, and getting away with it beautifully. And it's evident up on the screen. It's very elegant and claustrophobic and tight. There's no wriggle room for the characters or for the audience, really. The set was a very happy one, but Roman is Roman, and he is the director, capital letters. He knows what he wants and how he wants it, and he's a great actor. In his world, he's a great actor, and he knows how to act, he knows how to put on a performance, and he does. But he was very happy, I think, in making the movie, and nothing was really discussed on a day-to-day basis. You know, it was very workmanlike.

What was your reaction when you heard about Polanski's arrest? Were you concerned that the movie would never see the light of day?

PB: No, I wasn't, actually. I wasn't concerned for that. I was concerned for him, as a man and as someone who had become a friend. And, you know, I hoped for closure, I still hope for closure for him and for all parties concerned. I think what happened back then was wrong in every way, and I think he certainly would like to have closure. And again, I never had discussions with him, but it's certainly adds a controversial spotlight to the movie.

Do you think people will be able to see The Ghost Writer on its own terms, despite how they might feel about Mr. Polanski?

PB: I don't know. It's not an easy question to answer, really. I can't tell what other people will react [to]. He is heralded in Europe as a magnificent director and very much appreciated here in America within the community of filmmakers as a fantastic, magnificent director. You know, but the media will certainly wring this for every ounce of blood that's in the story because it's very controversial. So I don't know how [people] will react. All I know is I came to this to work with one of the great directors of cinema.

So to wrap things up and come full circle, what's your favorite Polanski movie?

PB: Chinatown. Rosemary's Baby. Knife in the Water. I'd never seen until I started working with Roman, and it just blew me away. It just blew me away, that film, and anyone who's a lover of films, they must see that film by that young man all those years ago.
Here is a review of Valley of the Dolls:

http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/2010/02/valley-of-dolls-trashier-than-municipal.html

Actress Kim Cattrall talks about Polanski:

"When I think of Roman, I think of his nose; he smells the truth. He is very intense. Sometimes because he's French and Polish, the frustration to explain what he wants comes out and he's like 'No, no! Terrible!' And you think, 'I'm terrible?' In some ways it was very tense and in some exhilarating."

New Translated Article on Roman and Sharon: Polanski thought Sharon had a great life and career ahead of her and More

Here is a vintage article that I have just had translated.  It comes from an Italian magazine and it is an interview with Roman about his work and Sharon:


Novella 2000 August 21, 1969

Her husband remembers her well.


In an interview to our newspaper a few days before the crime in Los Angeles, the film director Roman Polanski said: "Sharon is an amazing actress. But now, I do not care about her career as an actress, but that of her role as a mother."


Roman Polanski was in Taormina on the 2nd of August. With the help of a interpreter we managed to get a brief interview. He had just won a prestigious award for Rosemary's Baby.  He starts the interview abruptly.


"Certainly you want to know if I like the awards. Yes, I like the prizes, because it always means something. What amuses me though is what people will do to get awards, but I do not do anything. However I say that I like the prizes and I have no desire to say that I do not like them just to please those who want to dispute them."


"Are you not tired of," we asked, "introducing the horror element in your films and the mysterious? There is mystery in Cul De Sac, Knife in the Water, in Rosemary's Baby, as if this were the only subject that you prefer to deal with."


Polanski replied, laughing: "My films are of horror?! But not at all! My movies are done for fun. These people who judge my films this way do not understand me.  I make a movie because I enjoy it: I bask in happy events and do not dwell on horror. Yes, I think the public generally misunderstands me."

"Mia Farrow said that Roman Polanski is her favorite director. She claims that he is the only major director who now exists. This is a big statement for a very young actress, who joined the film after much controversy, and some have said to question her credibility. What do you think?"


"I thank Mia Farrow and I agree with you that I have a great record so far with films. But do not forget Fellini and Bergman. As for Mia, I am of the opinion that she is a wonderful actress, the best that exists at this time.  But," he added, "Rosemary's Baby is just one film and I hope to make many."


"But your wife, Sharon Tate, has been found to be an excellent actress. There is a promise of a great career. Yes?"


"Sharon? Probably. What I would like her to concentrate on at this moment is not on her career as an actress, but that of her role as a mother. She is expecting a child very soon. She has went to America because we want our child to be born there.  After that, then we'll see."


"Sharon Tate is not jealous of your work with Mia Farrow?  Does this effect your personal life?"


"I do not want to compare their work! I have no intention of responding to an inquiry about my personal life," so says the director as he stood up, but his friend named Silver was detained so Polanski sat back and said: "I believe in Mia Farrow because she was the ideal interpreter for Rosemary's Baby. If it had not been Mia Farrow I would certainly have prefered to have Sharon. You can not see evil where there is none. On the other hand I am still convinced that my wife can play many more roles in my films.  Her name came out suddenly after the Dance of the Vampires and The Valley of the Dolls. Everyone says of her that she will be a great actress, but she is just waiting for the right moment. Her career is important to her but so is having a child, wouldn't you agree?"


Roman Polanski repeated this statement at a press conference that followed our interview.  Reporters in Taormina have gotten the impression of him being a man who can be obnoxious and arrogant.  This taken from a very personal speech he gave in which the opinions of others apparently had no place.  We noted in our own notebook:  "And a man not intimidated by the media who he seems willing to trample."  Our opinion had found this further confirmation:  "Sometimes I find it nice to tease people and keep them guessing," he told one reporter.

Under the photo the caption reads: They were happy in London. Sharon Tate in a recent picture with her husband, the Polish director Roman Polanski. Some days prior Sharon (who was eight months pregnant) had moved to Los Angeles: Polanski wanted his first child born in America.

There is another article in the same section about Sharon.  I will try to have it translated next.  It is a long one but it looks to have some good quotes.

Here is a nice tribute to Sharon with some lovely photographs:

http://toothpastexs.blogspot.com/2010/01/roman-lies-to-me-and-i-pretend-to.html

Will Polanski's Recent Publicity Overshadow his New Movie?

Found this on the web today:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-01-15-polanski15_ST_N.htm

Roman Polanski's detention shadows 'Ghost Writer'

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY



Roman Polanski's new film, The Ghost Writer, is a murder mystery set amid the clash of international politics and espionage, reminiscent of the best paranoid thrillers from 1970s Hollywood.

But it's a real incident from that era that casts a less flattering shadow on the film.

The Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby filmmaker was arrested in Switzerland in September for possible extradition to the United States, which he fled in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski is now under house arrest and fighting extradition. The Ghost Writer, however, will be released in the USA on Feb. 19.

It remains to be seen whether the scandal surrounding him will influence how his new work is received.

Rob Friedman, co-chairman and chief executive of Summit Entertainment, which is distributing the movie, says it won't.

"People have an infinite capacity to separate art from people's lives," Friedman says. "Moviegoers are going to the movies. They're not making a statement about whether a trial judge in Los Angeles acted properly or whether (Polanski) paid his price to society."

The movie stars Ewan McGregor as a writer assigned to polish the autobiography of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan). McGregor is replacing a previous writer who drowned mysteriously, and when Brosnan comes under investigation as a war criminal, it becomes clear there is something in this politician's story that someone is willing to kill over.

"It's very Hitchcockian," says Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net, who was at a showing of the film Wednesday night in Los Angeles. "Polanski hasn't been making films for a few years, and I hadn't known what to expect. Going in, I was looking for a good drama, but it delivered something different from what I was expecting. It's a good thriller."

Billington notes, however, that the comments section on his website fills with vitriol when he writes about The Ghost Writer.

"I think it's going to hurt attendance," Billington says. "Some people look at it and say, 'I have a viewpoint against Roman Polanski, and no matter how good it looks, no matter who's in it, I can't support his film.' "

Polanski's life has been marked by tragedy. A childhood survivor of the Holocaust, he became one of Hollywood's most prominent directors but also lost his pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, in the notorious 1969 Manson family slayings.

The September arrest provoked emotions over his actions that had been simmering for more than three decades.

Polanski, who won an Oscar for 2002's The Pianist, has long been damaged by his arrest and flight because it limited his access to bigger Hollywood budgets and restricted his ability to work in the USA, says Gregory Ellwood, editor in chief of HitFix.com, who also saw the film Wednesday.

"In an alternate universe where this hadn't happened, Roman Polanski would be like Martin Scorsese," he said.

Ellwood also noted that Polanski still managed to continue to make films during this period, and has always found top actors willing to work with him (among them Harrison Ford in his 1988 thriller Frantic, and Johnny Depp in 1999's The Ninth Gate.)

For many years, the 1977 rape case faded to the background and was not a major issue when one of his films would come out.

"There was some scuttlebutt when he was nominated for The Pianist, but it was not dominating that discussion," Ellwood says.

The arrest has reignited the controversy, stirring furious feelings on both sides. It might be less of an issue for The Ghost Writer if it were an art-house film with limited commercial appeal, but as an exciting and accessible thriller, it has mainstream potential.

"This was more than a pleasant surprise," he says. "I think it's one of his more entertaining films, if not one of his best films."

Sounds like this is going to be one of his best films.  I hope it does better than expected.

Photo of the Week and More...

I found this great one on ebay this week. Very lovely:

Other news of the day:

No, this is definitely not Sharon Tate here but it does look like Sharon may have lent her fur coat to the bit part player:

http://frocktalk.com/?p=1891

What do you think?  I have always heard that Sharon was in a bit part in Rosemary's Baby but I could never find her.  And she certainly is not the girl in the coat.

Here is a lovely photo of Sharon with friends, Mia Farrow and Dean Martin:

http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/2010/01/don-rickles-on-dean-martin-roasts.html

I found this kind-of-unusual entry on this link:

Which persons, living or dead, would you invite to a fantasy dinner party?

http://sadandangry.livejournal.com/612743.html

Although I admit, I wouldn't mind stopping by for dinner with those great ladies myself. ;)

Coming up later: Photo Comparison of the Week and more vintage articles.

Sharon Tate... A Woman Deeply In Love

Here is another article from Melissa in Canada.  Thanks again, Melissa!

New Castle News, Saturday, December 9, 1967

Sharon is a Woman Deeply in Love by Dorothy Manners

HOLLYWOOD--The waiter in the Polo Lounge asked her after she ordered wine, "Are you 21?"

"I'm 25," said Sharon Tate seriously, oblivious of the compliment implied.  She looked about 16 in a white two-piece mini dress, black sweater, bare thighs and white boots up to the knee.  

But don't be fooled by the outward appearence of the sex bomb out of 'Valley of the Dolls.'  She's a woman--more importantly, a woman deeply in love--and she doesn't care if Roman Polanski knows it.

"I can't play games," she said.  "I have friends, older women, who tell me I'm foolish to let Roman know how deeply I care about him. They tell me all sorts of things like 'keep a man guessing,' 'men become bored with too much devotion.'  They tell me I am being foolish, well," she shrugged.  "Foolish I am."

The object of this refreshing affection is the 34 year-old director who has created an enormous vogue with his European pictures before coming to Hollywood to direct 'Rosemary's Baby.'  He and Sharon met a little over two years ago. 

Since then, where Roman is, there is Sharon.  When I first met her a year ago when she was making 'Don't Make Waves' with Tony Curtis, she could hardly wait for the picture to be finished so she could join Polanski in Europe.  She had the offer of another picture in Hollywood which she turned down because he couldn't join her.

"But 'Valley of the Dolls' was good timing.  When I started work, Roman had arrived to begin preparation on 'Rosemary's Baby' which worked out beautifully."

"When will the wedding be," I asked.

She looked surprised--as if it mattered.  "Oh, around the end of the year," she reported.

"That's practically here," I reminded her.

"Oh, is it?" she laughed.  I tell you, the girl doesn't know what time or month it is. 

It was high time we got off the love of her life and to something less unsettling--like the work in her life. This, she also loves.

She is quite something to look at as any cameraman in town will tell you.  Her 5' 5" 118 pound figure is almost flawless, her hair is its own ash blonde shade, her eyes hazel and enormous.  Sharon looks so much like a movie star it is not surprising that producer Marty Ransohoff took one look at her two years ago and said to his casting director, "Put that girl under contract."  No test, no nothing.

"It was an easy and yet most difficult way to get started," remembers Sharon.  "I was immediately put into training--rather like a Race horse with no Public exposure on tv or in little theatres, the ususal step - up to a career.  I began a strenuous routine of being coached in singing, dancing, speech, physical culture and, of course, dramatics.  It was very hard work without the rewards of audiences or applause or knowing how the paying customer is reacting to me."  Turns out the reaction is okay.

She was born in Dallas, Texas, the eldest daughter of three girls born to an army intelligence officer.  She barely remembers her birth city because her father was shifted from post to post in the U.S.A.

I wonder what movie Sharon turned down to be able to be with Roman? 

Another Reporter Remembers Sharon and Roman Plus Vampires and Beautiful Women

CAD Magazine February 1970

Our Life is our Jungle by Bruce Harper

When I encountered vibrant and intense Roman Polanski at Paramount Studios he was in the midst of editing Rosemary’s Baby, the brilliant film on satanism and witchcraft in our time that was to bring worldwide acclaim.

It was the spring of 1968 and the slight, intense, lean, young man who sat next to me at the small table was as happy as he possibly would be in his life.

He was thirty-four and looked ten years younger. He was already a world renowned festival prize winning film director, of Polish origin but now very mobile in the far-flung film world – Paris, London, Rome and now the heart of the industry, Hollywood.

But above all Roman Polanski had just wooed, won and married the unbelievably beautiful and talented young film star, Sharon Tate. If there was one young couple among the beautiful people who had everything going for them – love, immensely successful talent, exciting careers and the unlimited admiration of their peers – it was Sharon and Roman.

At this point a reddish-haired movie-star handsome, turtleneck-sweatered young fellow stopped to say hello to Roman. “Krysztof Komeda,” Roman said, “my composer. He is also a doctor. I told him he better leave the hospital, always rushing for an operation or something, and really stay in music. So he abandoned, of course, the study of medicine.” Polanski pointed to a mark on his upper lip. “I had a cut here,” he said. “He pulled my stitches out. I had a fight in Paris a few days ago, I came back with the stitches and I said, ‘I must have it pulled.’ Kris said ‘All right, I’ll pull it.’ He sat down and cooked the scissors and pulled it out. ‘You can do it so fast,’ I said, ‘I’m going to start being in doubt about the music!’”

I wanted to know about the fight. Did it have anything to do with moviemaking? “The fight?” Polanski responded dryly. “No, I just had a fight on the street. I got married, you know, I was in Paris on my honeymoon with my wife Sharon Tate. We were just going to the cinema. On the street there were three guys going in the opposite direction, and one stuck his hand under my wife’s skirt, so I punched him. And he had the stupid idea to punch me back. He had a little ring on his finger and he cut my lip.” This was instantly more than I expected, this insight into the contrasts shadowing Roman Polanski’s life. He was newly rich, famous, ensconced in that room at the top of his profession, just happily wed to fabulous Sharon Tate – and he had to fight with his fists against three toughs on the streets of Paris!

In Hollywood and London Polanski met Sharon Tate, and his life took on a new radiance. She was five-foot-five, a stunning ash-blonde--so glamorous that producers and directors kept discovering her. First it was director Martin Ritt who met her as a sixteen-year-old nymphet in Venice, where her father was then posted as a colonel in Army Intelligence. “You ought to be in pictures!” Ritt told Sharon, but Papa was against it. But later on a visit to Hollywood she remembered Ritt’s advice and went to agent Hal Gefsky. “All I know is,” he has said of that encounter, “when she walked into the my office she was the most beautiful girl in the world.”

She began making her own way, appearing in TV commercials, trying to break in the hard way. “I was just a piece of merchandise,” she said of that difficult period. “No one cared about me, Sharon.” The producer Martin Ransohoff saw her, signed her and groomed her for a superstar.

Now fate twisted together the bright-and-dark strands of Roman and Sharon’s lives. He was bewitched by the stunning, hypnotic witch (she played one in Eye of the Devil) on the screen and cast Sharon in a film he was then about to make that spoofed the vampire films, titled The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck! She romped through this wild satire in a red wig –and nothing else in a fantastic nude scene! This is how Cynan Jones saw her at that buoyant time of her life:

Sharon is the eternal woman, yet paradoxically she twists and turns her lithe body in the eager coltish manner of a careless tomboy. She affects the no-make-up Italian look, except for black eyeliner which serves to emphasize her wide hazel eyes and thick natural eyelashes. She has high cheekbones in an oval pre-Raphaelite face and her coloring is fresh and vivid with natural glowing cheeks. Her usual attire when not working is a huge oatmeal-colored sweater and skin tight jeans… She apparently cares little for clothes – and why should she with such an exquisite healthy body?

Sharon herself once said, “I’m really different underneath. All my life I’ve been told that I’m beautiful. But beauty has nothing to do with me – the real me. Anyway, you can stay covered up to your neck and still be sexy, you know. I would like my image to be somewhat secretive, simple and down-to-earth. I adore the little girl look." But when Roman Polanski entered her life he had still a different idea of her potential. “I’m trying to make her a little meaner,” he said. “She’s too nice and everyone walks all over her. She’s embarrassed by her own beauty.”

For her part, Sharon was fascinated by her brilliant young husband. “When I first met Roman,” she said, “I couldn’t believe he was a director because he looked so young. He’s the youngest looking man for his age I’ve ever seen. But he really isn’t as young as he looks. He’s thirty-five.” Her luminous eyes glowed as she rhapsodized about Roman. “He is wise, wonderful, brilliant and he knows everything! Above all, Roman is an artist.”

An interviewer found that she had “an aura, a magic, a curious mystique . . . a face of extraordinary beauty and a body that won’t quit,” and predicted that Sharon Tate would be with us a long time. It was a just prophesy, if some perverted destiny had not interfered with the right course of things…

Here is another article mentioning the recent vampire craze and it includes Roman and Sharon in The Fearless Vampire Killers:

http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com/wordpress/?p=1695

And another blog includes Sharon as one of the most beautiful women of the 1960s:

http://www.retrokimmer.com/2009/11/retrokimmer-favorite-1960s-beautiful.html