British actress Charlotte Lewis collapsed today in a French court after losing a defamation case against Roman Polanski after accusing the filmmaker of raping her when she was a teenager and then launching a ‘smear campaign’ against her.
Devastated Lewis, 56, said she was disappointed by the verdict and would appeal. “I feel sad,” she said. “For us this is not over.”
Polanski, 90, was not present at the Paris criminal court verdict on Tuesday.
Lewis told the court in March that he was the victim of a “smear campaign” that “almost destroyed” his life after he spoke out about the alleged abuse in the 1980s.
“He raped me,” the actress told the court, explaining that it had taken her time to put a name to the incident that occurred in Paris when she was 16.
The verdict of this court, specialized in media cases, refers strictly to the defamation charge and not to the actor’s rape accusation against Polanski.
British actress Charlotte Lewis collapsed in a French court today (pictured) after losing a defamation case against Roman Polanski after accusing the filmmaker of raping her as a teenager and then launching a ‘smear campaign’ against her.
Polanski (pictured in 2019), 90, was not present in court when the Paris criminal court verdict was announced on Tuesday. Lewis told the court in March that he was the victim of a “smear campaign” that “almost destroyed” his life after he spoke out about the alleged abuse in the 1980s.
The filmmaker, whose titles include the Oscar-winning ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Chinatown’ and ‘The Pianist’, did not attend any hearings of the trial.
His lawyer Delphine Meillet called him to announce the news. She said the court recognized her right to challenge people who make accusations against her.
He noted that the verdict came on the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival, calling it “a symbolic day.”
“It is a victory for the rights of the defense,” said the lawyer.
Polanski is wanted in the United States for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and faces several other sexual assault allegations dating back decades and beyond the statute of limitations, all charges he has rejected.
He fled to Europe in 1978.
In 2010, Lewis accused Polanski of abusing her “in the worst possible way” when she was 16 in 1983 in Paris, after she traveled there for a casting session.
He appeared in his 1986 film ‘Pirates’.
The French-born filmmaker countered that this was an “egregious lie” in a 2019 conversation with Paris Match magazine.
Lewis (pictured left with her lawyer) in 2010 accused Polanski of abusing her “in the worst possible way” when she was 16 in 1983 in Paris, after she traveled there for a casting session.
Lewis, pictured today, appeared in Polanski’s 1986 film ‘Pirates.’
According to Paris Match, he pulled out a copy of a 1999 article from the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World, and quoted Lewis as saying in it: “I wanted to be his lover.”
Lewis has said that the quotes attributed to him in that interview were not accurate.
She filed a defamation complaint and the film director was automatically charged under French law.
Stuart White, who wrote the 1999 News of the World article Polanski referred to, was also present in court.
“The interview I gave to Stuart White was not the interview that appeared in the newspaper,” Lewis said, adding that he discovered the article only years later.
White said he interviewed Lewis twice after the newspaper paid 30,000 pounds ($38,000 at current exchange rates) for the exclusive rights.
She insisted that she had accepted a “vicious” angle for the 1999 story, but said she did not remember whether she had asked to approve the text before it was published.
This file photo taken on May 8, 1986 shows film director Roman Polanski (right) and British actress Charlotte Lewis (left) posing before the presentation of the film ‘Pirates’, during the Cannes International Film Festival . Lewis was 16 years old when she appeared in the film.
In 2010, Lewis said he decided to speak out to counter suggestions from Polanski’s legal team that the 1977 rape case was an isolated incident.
Switzerland, France and Poland have refused to extradite Polanski to the United States.
Between 2017 and 2019, four other women reported that Polanski also abused them in the 1970s, three of them when they were minors.
He has denied all accusations.