Many are rallying to the defense of Roman Polanski, 76, director of such acclaimed films as Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist, which won him an Oscar. His arrest in Switzerland for fleeing the United States more than 30 years ago for the admitted rape of a 13-year-old has sparked protests from the intelligentsia in his adopted country, France, as well as Hollywood biggies Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Penelope Cruz, who seem to view him as a martyr to American Puritanism.

Whoopi Goldberg declared on TV’s The View, “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”

A newly released transcript of the case, including questioning of the child victim, begs to differ:

Q: What did you say, if anything?

A: I said, “No.”

Q: What did he say?

A: He goes, “Well, you’ll be better.” And I go, “No, I won’t. I have to go home.”

Q: What happened then?

A: He reached over and he kissed me. And I was telling him, “No,” you know, “Keep away.”

The transcript recounts that he allegedly plied the child with champagne and Quaaludes during a 1977 modeling shoot and raped her. The victim, now 45, who received a cash settlement from Mr. Polanski after she filed suit, says she forgives him and wishes the ordeal were over.

If he were a Catholic priest, you can bet Hollywood would not be demanding that Mr. Polanski be given a break. But because he is one of theirs, and because he had a horrifying childhood (he escaped from the Krakow ghetto during the Holocaust, and his mother died at Auschwitz), there is tendency among the entertainment illuminati to apply a different standard.

That would be wrong.

Mr. Polanski fled America on Feb. 1, 1978, the day that he was scheduled to be sentenced, because he had heard the judge planned to add prison time to his sentence. He had entered a plea agreement to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse, and the judge had agreed to drop other charges and commute the sentence to 42 days served.

Mr. Polanski, thus, believed he was being treated unjustly. But he should have faced the music and fought it out in America, rather than fleeing. Switzerland and America should not be faulted for trying to bring him back to justice now.

Cultural attainments or childhood trauma should not excuse such despicable behavior.