Polanski gets bail

By Matt Holmes / November 26, 2009

Roman Polanski is about to be let out of prison. USA Today writes...

A Swiss court granted Roman Polanski bail on Wednesday, accepting $4.5 million to allow him to remain under house arrest at his chalet. The director will stay in prison for up to 10 days while the Swiss government decides whether to appeal. The Swiss Criminal Court reversed its previous rejection of bail, saying it was confident the large cash guarantee would compel Polanski to remain at his chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad under house arrest and monitored by an electronic bracelet. The court said it still viewed him as a high flight risk.

Dubbing him a "high flight risk", makes me think of him as "Big X", aka Roger Bushell, the organiser and commander of the famous escape attempt from the Nazi prisoner of war super camp, Stalag Luft III. You know, Richard Attenborough's character in The Great Escape. Would Polanski make a run for the Swiss border and into France? Will he forge documents, pretend to be a Swiss citizen on a train, or even do a Steve McQueen and find a motorbike to jump a high barbed wire fence?

After all he's still facing a lengthy prison term if the Swiss Justice Minister decides to extradite him to the U.S.A. to finally face charges for his guilty plea of having sex with a 13-year old minor in 1977 Polanski has been a fugitive from America for over thirty years and if they do ever get hold of him, I'm not sure they will be too forgiving.

Meanwhile, this nude photo of Polanski and his first wife, actress Sharon Tate, taken four months before a pregnant Tate was murdered in their home by the Manson family, is predicted to take anywhere between $8,000 to $12,000, or possibly even more at an auction next month at Christie's.