A British actress, now 44, alleges Polanski abused her in his Paris apartment when she was 16—an incident similar to his rape of Samantha Geimer, 13. In fact he was running from those charges at the time.

Charlotte Lewis told reporters, according to ABC News, that in 1982 Polanski "sexually abused me in the worst possible way when I was just 16, four years after he fled the U.S. to avoid sentencing for his crime." She did not provide precise details, but did say there were "similarities" to the Geimer attack -in which he drugged the 13-year-old with Quaaludes and champagne before raping and sodomizing her. In her testimony, in 1978, Geimer described the attack, which took place at Jack Nicholson's Los Angeles home.

"I was ready to cry," she testified. "I was going, 'No. Come on. Stop it.'"

Geimer said Polanski began having intercourse with her before asking her if she used birth control and when her last period was.

She testified that he then asked: "Would you like me to go in through your back?" Then, he started performing anal sex on her.

Lewis says she has come forward now so the judge that sentences Polanski, if he is extradited from Switzerland to the US to face charges in the Geimer case, has the information. She does not plan to sue, although she is (inevitably) represented by lawyer Gloria Allred.

Meanwhile, at the Cannes film festival, another batch of filmmakers have signed a petition in support of Polanski. They aim, according to this Huffington Post story, to help him escape his "tragic solitude."