People talk 2/25/03

Controversial director has unlikely supporter

LOS ANGELES -- Filmmaker Roman Polanski's work should be judged on its merits, not on his crime, the victim of a 1977 sexual assault wrote in an op-ed article.

Polanski, 69, is nominated for a best-director Oscar for "The Pianist." The film, up for seven Academy Awards on March 23 including best picture, depicts the Holocaust through the eyes of a Polish pianist who hid from the Nazis.

Polanski pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful sex with a minor in 1977 but fled the country while on bail and eventually became a French citizen. He is a fugitive from the United States.

In the op-ed article printed in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Samantha Geimer said Polanski fled to France after a Los Angeles County judge refused to accept a plea bargain arranged by her lawyer, Polanski's attorney and the District Attorney's Office.

Polanski's films also include "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby."

Judge won't dismiss charge against Reubens

LOS ANGELES -- A judge refused to dismiss a misdemeanor charge accusing Paul Reubens, the actor best known for playing Pee-wee Herman, of possessing child pornography.

Defense attorney Blair Berk had argued that a state law enacted in 1989 does not apply to material produced before that year and that the one-year statute of limitations for a misdemeanor crime expired before Reubens was charged in November.

Assistant City Attorney Richard Kraft said he was pleased with Superior Court Judge Carol Rehm's ruling Friday. Berk said she may appeal.

Both sides were ordered to appear in Superior Court Friday to schedule a trial date.

Reubens has pleaded innocent to one misdemeanor count of possessing material depicting children under 18 engaging in sexual conduct. The 50-year-old actor is free on $20,000 bail.

The charge, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine, resulted from a search of Reubens' home in November 2001. Police seized his art collection and personal computers.

France pays tribute to Meryl Streep

PARIS -- Meryl Streep was awarded France's highest artistic honor, and she thanked the country for "loving women of a certain age -- in movies and in life."

France's culture minister, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, named Streep, 53, a commander of the order of arts and letters, praising her "courage, delicacy, sensitivity and determination." He said she's been a star in France since 1985's "Out of Africa."

Streep thanked her fans in both French and English.

"Usually, America doesn't reward people of my age, either in day-to-day life or for their performances," she said.

"I hope they'll understand," she joked.

Later Saturday, Streep and director Spike Lee won honorary Cesar awards -- France's equivalent of an Oscar.

"I always wanted to play women who are rather difficult, difficult to love, difficult to understand ... difficult to look at sometimes, or difficult to define," she said in French. "I'm grateful that the French public welcomed these complex and contradictory women."

Streep, a two-time Oscar winner, is nominated this year for best-supporting actress for "Adaptation." She's been nominated more than any other actor -- 13 times.

Criticism after marriage to McCartney hurt Mills

LONDON -- Heather Mills says press criticism following her marriage to Paul McCartney has left her "absolutely wiped out."

"The lowest point of my life has been since the press turned on me really badly, which sounds crazy," she said Saturday. "Now I'm at that stage where I feel absolutely wiped out."

Mills, 35, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the press has often portrayed her as an accessory to McCartney. She married the former Beatle in Ireland last June.

"(Paul) is a fantastic, fantastic man, but the stuff that comes with it is very hard to deal with," she said.

Mills, who lost a leg in a traffic accident 10 years ago, said some newspapers had turned against her because she rarely opened up in public. The bad publicity had even caused manufacturers of prosthetic limbs to shun her, she said.

She told talk-show host Michael Parkinson that she found it hard to live in the shadow of McCartney's wife, Linda McCartney, who died in 1998 from breast cancer.

"There's always problems between stepmothers -- think of Cinderella, there's the wicked stepmother," she said.

But Mills said she and McCartney's daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, do charity work together, and that her marriage has remained strong.

Friends pay tribute to slain actress

LOS ANGELES -- Some 250 friends and family of Lana Clarkson gathered to pay tribute to the actress found slain earlier this month at the mansion of record producer Phil Spector.

Sunday's service at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Hollywood featured clips from Clarkson's cult classic "Barbarian Queen" and home videos of the actress riding horses as a child.

Friends sang original songs they'd written for her.

"It was a very warm and loving ceremony," said her agent, Ray Caveleri. "Everybody that she knew considered her their best friend. She was very unique in that area."

Police discovered Clarkson, 40, shot to death Feb. 3 in the foyer of Spector's estate in Alhambra.

Spector was arrested on suspicion of murder and posted $1 million bail. Arraignment has been scheduled for March 3.