Samantha Geimer, the childhood victim of convicted rapist Roman Polanski, is releasing her own memoir in September. In it, she promises to finally tell her side of the story and how the attack by the perverted monster Polanski has affected her life. In an interesting twist, some of the pre-release attention being paid to the book is focusing on the long lost photo – shot by her rapist – which she chose to use for the book cover.

Two months before its release, Samantha Geimer’s memoir is already making headlines, after the release of its striking cover image.

The book, “The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski,” features a photograph of a young Samantha (then known as Samantha Gailey, her maiden name) taken by Polanski himself on Feb. 20, 1977…

Atria’s vice president and director of publicity, Paul Olsewski, told TODAY that Geimer’s lawyer, Lawrence Silver, demanded all photographs of Samantha be handed over during civil litigation. While Polanski had turned over prints of Geimer, Silver believed there were more, and ultimately was able to uncover a series of images, including the one that now appears on Geimer’s book.

You can see the full photo at the link. This is just such a disturbing story on so many levels, and one which we’ve covered here before on a number of occasions. Geimer has been victimized repeatedly over the course of her life, not only by the monster who defiled her, but by Hollywood and the wider national media who can’t quite seem to bring themselves to admit that their “hero” Polanski could have been all that bad. Ed described this succinctly back in 2009 when the US was trying unsuccessfully to extradite Polanski back from France to finally pay for his crimes.

Over thirty years ago, Roman Polanski fled the US after being charged with statutory rape. The victim, a 13-year-old girl, accused the then-44 film director of forced sexual intercourse and sodomy. After getting generous terms of release during the pretrial procedures, he fled to France in 1978 and has never returned. A Los Angeles court convicted Polanski in absentia…

In some ways, it should hardly surprise anyone that the film industry would try to rehabilitate Polanski. His annual appearances at Cannes always come with the wistful reminder that he cannot travel to the US or practically anywhere else without fear of extradition. These usually neglect to mention Polanski’s conviction, and also the brutal nature of the crime against a girl who could barely be called adolescent.

That was more than four years ago, and sadly not much has changed since then. Take a look at how the LA Times chooses to describe the release of this new book. (Emphasis mine.)

Samantha Geimer, the woman Roman Polanski was convicted of having sex with when she was 13, has released a provocative cover for her new memoir, “The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.”

The image is a photograph that the “Chinatown” director took of Geimer in 1977, three weeks before the notorious night that changed both of their lives.

Are. You. Kidding. Me?

He didn’t “have sex with” her. He raped and sodomized a confused, star-struck child after drugging her. And describing the brutal, animal assault as “the night that changed both of their lives” is insulting beyond belief. But somehow the press in LaLaLand can’t shake free of this narrative. And the monster remains on the loose in Europe, frequently feted by his adoring army of supporters in California. It is to weep.