“Until then, the board of governors — many of whom are now expressing their horror at The Slap — saw no reason to remove him from its membership which is hardly surprising when you learn that among their number is Whoopi Goldberg who said of Polanski’s conviction: ‘I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else’.”

He continued: “So, spare me Hollywood’s sudden moral seizure over Will Smith slapping a guy for mocking his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.”

Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 on a warrant for his 1977 crime, where he drugged and raped a 13-year-old-girl.

He admitted to the crime in the 70s but before he received his full sentence, he fled America and never returned in a bid to avoid conviction.