The Academy of Motion Picture Arts recently rose up in righteous indignation and booted convicted child rapist and pedophile Roman Polanski from their ranks over things they’d known about for more than a quarter of a century but did nothing about. Simply saying “better late than never” doesn’t really excuse all sins, but at least they didn’t wait to do it posthumously, I suppose. So until we hopefully find a way to put a bag over his head and drag him back to the United States and throw him in prison, that’s pretty much the end of it, right?

Not so fast. Polanski is apparently stunned that anyone would hold him to account in any fashion and is threatening to sue the academy unless they reinstate him tout de suite. (Jezebel)

Polanski was booted from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a decision that reportedly “blindsided” him, and not because he couldn’t believe it had finally happened. Then, on Tuesday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Polanski’s attorney Harland Braun sent a letter to Academy president John Bailey, threatening legal action over the director’s expulsion.

The hubris on display in the attorney’s letter is a marvel to behold.

“I am writing this letter to you to avoid unnecessary litigation. Mr. Polanski has a right to go to court and require your organization to follow its own procedures, as well as California law. The only proper solution would be for your organization to rescind its illegal expulsion of Mr. Polanski and follow its own Standards of Conduct by giving Mr. Polanski reasonable notice of the charges against him and a fair hearing to present his position with respect to any proposed expulsion.

Curiously, Braun goes on to say that Polanski is not, “contesting the merits of the expulsion,” but rather the rules mechanism employed to ban him. That’s very possibly the closest that Polanski (even through an attorney) has ever come to admitting that he did something wrong the night that he drugged, raped and sodomized a thirteen-year-old child.

But even the argument about the process for expelling members seems to be full of holes. The Jezebel article goes on to note that the academy’s charter allows any member to be expelled for cause through a vote by two-thirds of the group’s Board of Governors. Clearly, they finally had the votes to take this obscenely overdue action and no explanation to Polanski was required. Of course, if you’re the sort of person who sees being a pedophile rapist as no big deal, you might not be inclined to pay too much attention to the rules of a private motion picture academy.

Sadly, a bit of a professional slap on the wrist doesn’t advance the cause of justice whatsoever. If Polanski’s lawyer really wants something to complain about we should find a way to drag him back to America in chains rather than in a limo. Then he can be “astonished” to his heart’s content… in a prison cell.