2. Roman Polanski

There is little doubt that Roman Polanski is a genius filmmaker. With movies like "Repulsion", "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown", and "The Pianist" under his belt, he deserves the adulation he receives for his films. But, in 1977, the director was arrested for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old model, and after initially complying with the legal process, he fled the United States after learning he might receive more jail time. He has lived in exile in France and other countries, avoiding arrest while still making films up to the present day. Polanski is indeed a brilliant filmmaker, and a lot of time has passed, but raping a 13 year old really isn't the sort of thing that people should conveniently forget.

1. Eric Clapton

For a guy who owes his entire career to a whitewashed repackaging of a musical style created by African-Americans, Eric Clapton has said some horribly racist things in the past. In 1976, a heavily inebriated "Slow Hand" took the stage at a concert in Birmingham and broke into a nasty and vile rant against immigrants in England, with a liberal use of racial epitaphs I won't quote here. At the time, Clapton supported an anti-immigration politician named Enoch Powell, and later attributed his racist meltdown to years of drug abuse, claiming he was an opponent of large scale immigration, but not racist. The incident was also partially responsible for the formation of "Rock Against Racism," a large concert event created as a response to what many felt was a rise in racist support among young people and some rock stars. As recently as 2007, Clapton still professed his support of Powell.

The sad thing is that researching the personal lives and backstage antics of various famous people quickly makes it seem like every rock star in the '60s and '70s was knowingly chasing girls who were practically still playing with Barbie dolls. The list of famous musicians, movie stars, and film makers who have been linked to that sort of serious criminal behavior makes it pretty clear that, when money and fame walks in the room, a lot of people just look the other way. It also makes it pretty obvious that many of these folks were involved with some pretty awful activities, and never really suffered any serious repercussions for them.

Personally, my problem is that I still like Led Zeppelin, I still enjoy Woody Allen's films, despite some really troubling accusations against him. I will always enjoy Roman Polanski's movie and that stirs up some conflicting feelings in me.

Is it possible to truly enjoy the great things a person has created, while also understanding that they were responsible for awful actions in their personal lives? I'm not sure I can rationalize that in a way that is really satisfying or seems fair, and instead find myself with the uncomfortable conclusion that great art is often made by terrible people. 

It's also something to remember when someone from the classic rock era is criticizing modern hip hop artists or rock stars for being criminals or immoral - a LOT of their musical idols were doing the same thing or worse.