An important question to ask, no? Not necessarily for the sake of justice — as a 76-year-old, he’s unlikely to be prosecuted again — but for the sake of determining just how much child molestation a masterpiece like “Chinatown” entitles you to. By my count, we’ve got one confirmed incident (a rape-rape, in Whoopi Goldberg terminology, not statutory rape) per the guilty plea that he entered in L.A. in 1977; we’ve got a likely statutory case via his, ahem, “romance” with 15-year-old Nastassja Kinski; and we’ve got this charming anecdote dug up by Mark Steyn, which pre-dates both of those incidents.

Jonah, in my weekend column, I quote Robert Towne, the screenwriter of Chinatown, who says he found it hard to concentrate during writing sessions at Polanski’s place, what with “the teenyboppers that Roman would run out and take Polaroid pictures of diving off the f***ing diving board without tops on. Which was distracting. With braces.”

I guess “teenybopper” could encompass a range of ages, although I don’t know many 18-year-olds to whom that term is normally applied — and who, at that age, are still having their teeth straightened. But kudos to our genius auteur for being able to maintain his focus on a cinematic masterwork while snapping presumptive spank photos of pre-pubescent girls. Clearly he’s earned a comfortable retirement in a Swiss chalet for that.

Anyone think this sort of behavior ended cold turkey after Kinski, incidentally? And anyone think his L.A. victim is the only one he agreed to pay hush money to?