Dear Harvey: Please Get Over Yourself

Americans are debating whether Roman Polanski should be brought back to America to serve the sentence he skipped out on over 30 years ago for having sex (well, raping her, but he pleaded to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor) with a 13-year-old girl. A large portion of society seems to believe that Polanski should face the music for what is truly a disgusting crime, but as we all know, he has his defenders for several reasons: a) he’s a nice guy, b)he’s a brilliant director, c) the art world is being made to suffer, and d) gosh — it was over 30 years ago. To coin a phrase, let’s just “move on.”

We all know that many Hollywood insiders live inside a magical bubble where there are no consequences for anything. Serial affairs, alcohol, drugs — everything is forgiven as long as you can make money for the machine (but they are against capitalism, natch), except that most heinous of crime of all: being a conservative. And we all know that many of them place themselves on a higher plane than those of us little people down here in the theater and stadium seats and in front of our television sets, without whom, of course, Tinseltown would be nothing but a very large (and broke) collection of overinflated egos.

Proof of this “holier than thou” attitude comes right out of the mouth of one of the biggest bigwigs himself: Harvey Weinstein of Miramax pictures:

In an interview, Weinstein said that people generally misunderstand what happened to Polanski at sentencing. He’s not convinced public opinion is running against the filmmaker and dismisses the categorization of Hollywood as amoral. “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion,” Weinstein said. “We were the people who did the fundraising telethon for the victims of 9/11. We were there for the victims of Katrina and any world catastrophe.”

Let’s repeat that, shall we? “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion. We were the people who did the fundraising for the victims of 9/11. We were there for the victims of Katrina and any world catastrophe.”

Well, thank goodness for Hollywood. Without them, nothing would get done. Yet, where were we, Harvey? Where exactly were “the little people” during these tragic times?

Let’s see: 403 firefighters, police officers and paramedics died on 9/11 while trying to save the lives of thousands of others, not to mention the respiratory problems of some 300 firefighters afterward and the 422,000 New Yorkers who suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome. An estimated $1.4 billion was donated by regular Americans to 9/11 charities. Let’s not forget those who stepped forward to volunteer to help in whatever capacity they could. (This is not to be confused with the “National Day of Service” that is supposed to take the place of a proper day of remembrance.)

Mentions of 9/11 at the next Academy Awards? 26.

Nearly $4 billion was raised by private, non-profit organizations for relief after Hurricane Katrina. (Sadly, much of it was misspent, but that’s not the fault of those who donated.) More than 1 million volunteers made their way to the storm-ravaged area, giving up weekends and vacation plans to help.

Yes, Hollywood held a telethon — to which average Americans donated money — where Kanye West declared, “George W. Bush doesn’t like black people.” I love those touching Kumbaya, bring-the-nation-together moments. Don’t you?

And who could forget Sean Penn’s valiant effort to save helpless victims as he went down, shotgun in hand, and boarded a boat loaded down by his entourage that included a photographer, and ended up bailing out his sinking boat with a red plastic cup. Mission accomplished!

Last, but certainly not least, when it comes to disasters at home and around the world, we cannot forget our fabulous military. When deployed, they always act efficiently and with compassion. And our government is usually quick to donate millions to disaster-ravaged areas too, like pledging $350 million to help in the aftermath of the tsunami in Indonesia back in 2004.

By the way, when’s that telethon to help the victims of the tsunami in American Samoa scheduled?

Don’t misunderstand: if Hollywood wants to hold telethons and concerts and whatever else to raise funds for a good cause, no one’s going to complain. But let’s keep it in perspective. To quote Eugene Robinson (a Washington Post lib, no less):

The Los Angeles Times quoted Weinstein as saying in an interview that he doesn’t believe public opinion is running against Polanski — or that Hollywood is out of step. “Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion,” Weinstein said, according to the newspaper. “We were the people who did the fundraising telethon for the victims of 9/11. We were there for the victims of Katrina and any world catastrophe.”

Hollywood was there, all right, whenever the tragedy was distant, the victims were anonymous and the “compassionate” concert or telethon had acceptable production values that made all the stars look their best. How heroically they rearranged their busy schedules!

Indeed. It brings a tear even to my jaundiced eye — the red carpet, the fabulous gowns, fawning celeb mag fotogs, the goodie bags worth thousands of dollars, the after-hours VIP parties in exclusive clubs…

Back in 2007, Americans gave just under $300 billion to charity, with individuals giving a combined 75.6 percent of the total, donating almost twice as much as the next most charitable nation, the UK . And those in the poorest income brackets donate more per capita than their wealthier counterparts. Was there a star-studded telethon that year (aside from the usual Jerry Lewis gig)? I can’t recall. But how strange that many celebs are reluctant to publicly declare how much cold cash they personally donate to a cause.

So, Harvey, please, take your “moral compass” and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. I think Americans are doing just fine without your overrated “guiding light.”