Newsmakers

An Oscar--By Special Delivery When Harrison Ford accepted the best-director Oscar on behalf of Roman Polanski at the Academy Awards in L.A. last March, he promised he'd deliver it in person to the director of "The Pianist" as soon as he could. Last week, at the Deauville Film Festival in France, Ford kept his word.

"Delivery for Roman Polanski! Delivery for Roman Polanski!" called the star as he strode into the bar of Deauville's swanky Hotel Royal, carrying a small brown carton under his arm. Polanski, president of the festival jury, was chatting with Jack Valenti, chief of the Motion Picture Association. The filmmaker laughed and gave Ford a big hug. With a swarm of paparazzi waiting outside the hotel, Ford opened the package to show Polanski the golden statuette. "You're going to take it out of the box, right?" Polanski asked. "Look," Ford said to Valenti, "he's directing me." "That's what I do," cracked Polanski, who did direct Ford in the 1988 thriller "Frantic."

"Now, how do you want to play this?" Ford asked. "How about I play the Harrison Ford role and you play the Roman Polanski role?" With that, the pair strolled out onto the lawn as the cameras flashed, and Polanski finally got his Oscar.

"Maybe we should kiss with tongues," Polanski quipped, referring to the lip lock Adrien Brody gave Halle Barry when he won best actor for starring in Polanski's film.

Photo op over, the director went back to the bar. Polanski, 70, who fled the States 25 years ago after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape but before he was sentenced, lives in Paris. "It's nice to have the Oscar," he told NEWSWEEK. "I think I'll put it in my office with my other statuettes--I have a few, you know. Maybe next to the Palme d'Or"--the Cannes prize he also took home last year.

--Dana Thomas