ROMAN POLANSKI - POLANSKI DOC MAKER STUNNED BY D.A.'S "I LIED"

POLANSKI DOC MAKER STUNNED BY D.A.'S "I LIED"

The director of the documentary Roman Polanski Wanted and Desired said Thursday that she was "perplexed" by former L.A. Deputy District Attorney David Wells's admission that he had lied to her during an interview featured in her film. Wells recanted his story that he had held a private meeting with the judge in the case prior to Polanski's sentencing and urged him not to accept a plea bargain and instead impose a harsher prison sentence on the director for having unlawful sex with a minor. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Wells said that he had embellished his role in the case because he thought the interview would only be shown in France. In her own statement, filmmaker Marina Zenovich said that she had filmed a one-hour interview with Wells in 2005, that he had signed a release, and that "at no time did I tell him that the film would not air in the United States." She said that he had corroborated his account in an interview with the New York Times only a year ago. "I am astonished that he has now changed his story. It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens," she concluded. Meanwhile, Los Angeles Count District Attorney Steve Cooley on Thursday responded to criticism by some filmmakers and French officials of his efforts to bring Polanski to trial. "It doesn't matter if it's Roman Polanski or anyone else, I think that those things should be treated like anyone else," he told the Los Angeles Times . "It doesn't matter if you're a big-time movie director."

02/10/2009