“She still seems to be suggesting that there are different levels of forcing someone to have sexual intercourse without their consent, that some rapes are better than others. What a dangerous and foolish thing to say.”   I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The actress Whoopi Goldberg has coined the stupidest term in the whole furore over Roman Polanski’s arrest in Zurich for having sexual intercourse with a minor.

Speaking on television show The View, Goldberg said “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”

“Rape-rape?” As opposed to just ‘rape’? Goldberg was trying to pin down the exact crime Polanski was charged with but she still seems to be suggesting that there are different levels of forcing someone to have sexual intercourse without their consent, that some rapes are better than others. What a dangerous and foolish thing to say.

Goldberg also said: “We’re a different kind of society. We see things differently. The world sees 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds in the rest of Europe… not everybody agrees with the way we see things…”

Polanski’s 13-year-old victim was intoxicated by champagne and a Quaalude before he took pictures of her naked. Then, despite her alleged resistance, the 44-year-old had sexual intercourse with her. Despite Polanski’s mastery at film making, let’s not pretend that we see this as anything but despicable and utterly wrong. Even in Europe. – UK Telegraph