The View Takes on Roman Polanski, Whoopi Comes Up With New Definition of Rape

Some of the most complex issues of our time have been tackled (and figured out!) on The View. So it's no surprise that on their Monday morning show the hosts weighed in on the Roman Polanski arrest scandal.

"He had a terrible time, and he's a wonderful director." says Joy Behar.  "But, he did rape a 13-year-old child."

Rhetorician/legal scholar Whoopi Goldberg has a problem with that seemingly non-controversial point: "The language that we use here is very important, because, that is not the allegation ... "

There's some more back and forth, during which Goldberg berates the other guests for talking about Polanski as if he ... raped a 13 year old? Guest star Melissa Gilbert appears similarly hesitant to come down hard on Polanski, making the points that the girl's Mom was in the building; and it's been a pretty long time since it happened; and, you know, years later the victim doesn't want deal with it, so ... (A large picture of the victim flashes on the screen to underscore the sensitivity of that point).

Then, Whoopi Goldberg outdos that brilliant reasoning by coming up with a really good legal defense for rapists: "What I'm saying is that he did not rape her, cause she was aware, and the family, apparently was aware ... "