Entertainment: Starting as a Succubus, Taking Hollywood by Storm

While Martin was busy promoting Inception, he got a call from Robert Iger.

Picking up, Martin said, "Hey, Robert, how's it going? I heard you're trying to convince the board to greenlight the acquisition of Lucasfilm?"

"Hi, Martin. Sorry to bother you—I know you're swamped," Iger's voice sounded weary. "But I need your help with something."

Since taking the reins at Disney, Iger had reclaimed shareholder voting rights and placed Drew on the board. In theory, he shouldn't be facing any internal pushback. But unlike Martin's formidable influence, Iger's clout was limited. Without the Disney name and his status as a company veteran, he wouldn't have been able to challenge the former "tyrant" CEO, Michael Eisner, in the first place.

Now that Eisner was gone, Iger could've settled for a happy ending. But toppling Eisner had inflated his confidence, giving him the illusion that his success was all his own doing. No longer content with just a board seat, he wanted more power. That ambition put him at odds with some board members and allies, including Roy Disney.

"Robert, even if Roy's against it, you should still have the majority of the board on your side, right?" Martin asked, puzzled. "With your skills, Roy Disney shouldn't be a real obstacle. You've been doing great!"

Iger sighed. "That's how it should be, but I'm facing a trust crisis right now."

"A trust crisis?"

"Yeah, because of Roman Polanski."

"What?" Martin was baffled.

Of course, he knew Roman Polanski—Jack Nicholson's friend and a genius director. Polanski's accolades were endless: Best Director at the Oscars, the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Silver Bear at Berlin. His films were legendary. Rosemary's Baby ranked 9th on AFI's list of the top 100 horror films and was named one of the "25 scariest films ever" by Entertainment Weekly. Chinatown was hailed as the best crime thriller in American cinema, earning 11 Oscar nominations and a spot on the British Film Institute's "100 Greatest Films" list. The Pianist not only won Polanski a Best Director Oscar and a César Award but also made Adrien Brody the youngest Best Actor winner at 29—though, in this timeline, Martin had beaten that record.

Undoubtedly, Polanski was one of the greatest directors in film history. But this immensely talented man was also a deeply flawed, widely reviled figure due to his sexual misconduct.

His childhood explained much of the darkness in his work. At six, he watched his father get sent to a concentration camp and his mother die at Auschwitz. In 1965, while filming the vampire comedy The Fearless Vampire Killers in London, Polanski met his future wife, Sharon Tate. She became his muse, and their love blossomed quickly. They married in 1968 in a lavish hippie-style ceremony, and Polanski's career soared. The Fearless Vampire Killers opened doors in Hollywood, leading to the iconic Rosemary's Baby.

But tragedy struck. Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant, was brutally murdered by the Manson Family. Her body was found hanging, bloodied, stabbed 16 times, her unborn child cut from her womb. The media didn't offer sympathy. Instead, headlines viciously speculated that Polanski, capable of crafting something as terrifying as Rosemary's Baby, must be tied to a cult, and Sharon death was his fault.

Polanski, heartbroken, said, "The time I spent with Sharon was the only truly happy period of my life." His personality grew more volatile. His mother's absence, his father's remarriage after the war, and his wife's horrific death left him deeply distrustful of women and marriage. His views on sex became conflicted and twisted.

In Bitter Moon, Polanski depicted a couple obsessed with S&M. The male lead, Oscar, relished being dominated, crawling with a pig mask while being whipped by his partner, Mimi. But when he tired of it, he turned abuser, forcing Mimi into a miscarriage and hysterectomy, driving her to psychological collapse and suicide.

Then came the infamous 1977 incident with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. During a photoshoot, Polanski gave her sedatives, had her undress and enter a hot tub, and assaulted her. As long as he stayed out of the U.S., he avoided prosecution.