While defending creepy child rapist Roman Polanski is a difficult task, the one thing his celebrity apologists have had going for them is the 2008 documentary "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which raises serious question about the fairness of the director's 1977 trial.

Not so much anymore. In fact, our friends at FilmDrunk are reporting that the prosecutor who claimed in the documentary that he improperly consulted with the judge during Polanski's plea-bargain proceedings has recanted his statements, saying he lied about the conspiring to make the movie "better." (Wow, that really inspires faith in the legal system.)

Now that that's out there, the Whoopi Goldbergs and Martin Scorseses of the world will have to rely increasingly on their ridiculous "but he's so talented" justification of Polanski's behavior.

This isn't the first time we've heard folks weigh a famous person's alleged sex crime against how good he is at his job. It happened with Michael Jackson (who paid millions to have his accuser go away), Woody Allen (who lives with his sex crime) and Bill Clinton (who's been accused of worse than sex with a subordinate.)

But which of these men are so "talented" that his backers would feel the need to keep bringing up his special genius even if he was accused of, say, diddling a school bus full of 10-year-olds?