Filmmaker Roman Polanski, 76, Arrested by Swiss Authorities on 1973 Rape Charges

You can run but you can't hide. According to organizers of the Zurich Film Festival, director Roman Polanski, 76, has been taken into custody by Swiss police on a 31-year-old U.S. arrest warrant. Polanski fled the U.S. in 1978, one year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with Samantha Geimer, when she was 13 years old . I guess he got so used to running from the law that he didn't bother checking if he could have been arrested on the charges in Switzerland, where he traveled to receive a lifetime achievement award and has visited many times. Samantha Geimer, who is married and the mother of three children, wants the charge against him to be dismissed in the interest of saving her from further trauma as the case is publicized anew.

Polanski, who has lived in France for the past three decades, directed classic films such as "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and most recently "The Pianist," in 2002, for which he won a directing Oscar Award in absentia.  He sought dismissal of his case on the grounds that the judge, who has since passed away, had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.