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As for who has signed, we have, among many others:

Tilda Swinton
Martin Scorsese
Woody Allen
Asia Argento
Sam Mendes
Steven Soderbergh
Monica Bellucci
Other stars have simply offered verbal defenses of Polanski. Whoopi Goldberg recently said on The View that the director wasn’t guilty of “rape-rape.”

“It was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape,” Goldberg said.

Stars also love to come to the defense of famous friends, if for no other reason than to dust off old hacksaws like who-are-we-to-judge and we-all-make-mistakes.

In the wake of the Chris Brown-Rihanna beating, T.I. felt the need to tell us that “we’re celebrities, we’re entertainers, but we’re still human—all of us. Don’t expect us not to make mistakes, because we will.”

And if you’re wondering, “Gee, that statement sure does sound like it condones violence,” you’re right. In fact, T.I. apparently thought it condoned violence, too, because he distanced himself from that statement soon after. (Tyrese Gibson preferred the ah-youth spin: “A lot of people forget that he’s 19, she’s only 21.”)

As for where I stand? Well. Take one guess.

Polanski participated in a psychiatric evaluation and expected to be released on probation, but the judge signaled he might put Polanski in prison. The director illegally skipped town before things could be sorted out and has been hanging out in Europe ever since. He was finally arrested at a Swiss film festival this week.

A constellation of directors and stars have signed a petition demanding Polanski’s release, calling the issue a mere “case of morals.”

The petition also deemed the arrest uncool because it was in a “neutral country, where [Polanski] assumed he could travel without hindrance,” and because it undermines some sort of free and open tradition among film festivals. And oh, the arrest was also bad because “it opens the way for actions of which no-one can know the effects.” So there.

What’s with the defense of Roman Polanski? Who cares how many years have passed, he’s wanted for sleeping with a 13-year-old!
—Dan McDan, via Twitter

Let me try to answer your question while being as impartial and didactic as I possibly can.

The slimeball was not wanted for sleeping with a 13-year-old girl. The slimeball—who is also a sand flea and a self-entitled, overbloated, manipulating egotist—is wanted for skipping out on a hearing over his sentencing. For having unlawful sex with that 13-year-old.

As for who is defending him, after his arrest in Switzerland, and why, take a look. Your favorite celebrity might be on the list…

Now, in case you weren’t born when this all happened—which you weren’t: Roman Polanski is a director. In 1977, Polanski had anal sex with a 13-year-old girl at the home of then couple Jack Nicholson and Angelica Houston. The girl had been drugged and had said no. Polanski went ahead anyway. He was originally charged with rape, but the charge was reduced to unlawful sex with a minor as part of a plea bargain.

Dennis Hopper’s taken an uneasy ride to an emergency room.

The iconoclastic star of Easy Rider, Hoosiers and Blue Velvet was taken by ambulance today to an unidentified New York hospital.

While eyewitnesses told Entertainment Tonight the 73-year-old was brought into the E.R. wearing an oxygen mask, his publicist says Hopper is merely suffering from a flulike stomach ailment.

Hopper was in New York to promote his role as an unhinged music mogul on the Starz TV version of Crash, but has canceled most of his stops, including tonight’s appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon as well as a swing by the Today show.

Hopper made a name for himself writing, starring and directing in 1969′s counterculture classic Easy Rider, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

After a psychedelic-infused turn in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Hopper nabbed a second Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor for 1987′s Hoosiers. He’s also known for playing a series of memorable villains in such films as Blue Velvet and Speed and on the first season of 24.

This star got close to a baby elephant during her trip to Kenya.

How close? Check out how she’s feeding the little guy a bottle of milk. Of course, she’s a seasoned pro at bottle feeding, as she already raised three humans of her own.

Her hubby accompanied her on the trip to Africa, and naturally, the Twitter-happy twosome have been sharing pics from their trip online.

Think you know who’s getting personal with a pachyderm? Find out after the jump…

It’s Demi Moore.

She also posted another pic of her and Ashton Kutcher with the elephants on her Twitter.

We bet petting elephants is just the thing to help Ashton over the loss of The Beautiful Life, the series he produced for the CW that just got axed after airing only two episodes.

His friends were right: DJ AM didn’t commit suicide.

According to the New York City Medical Examiner, the turntable artist otherwise known as Adam Goldstein died accidentally of “acute intoxication” after consuming a lethal cocktail of cocaine, painkillers, sleeping pills and mood-alterers including OxyContin, Vicodin, Benadryl, Xanax, Ativan and Klonopin.

In the days after his Aug. 28 death, investigators were looking at the possibility that the star DJ may have killed himself, something his inner circle found hard to believe. The medical examiner ultimately agreed—the final report flatly states AM’s death was an “accident” due to “substance abuse.”

The 36-year-old artist had battled a drug habit, but had been sober for years before apparently relapsing in the wake of his horrific 2008 plane crash. Drug paraphernalia, including a crack pipe, were found next to his body.

Just last week came word that, despite the whiff of hypocrisy, MTV was pressing ahead with plans to air its DJ AM-fronted series about substance abuse, with the star acting as a tough-love counselor to hardened drug cases.

Looks like Kate Gosselin is getting her own show…all at the expense of Jon.

After months of his grousing, the patriarch is literally being subtracted from their TLC reality show, which the network has just officially renamed Kate Plus 8.

When it relaunches in November, the show will center more around Kate’s single-mom plight raising eight kids, with Jon only making occasional appearances.

“Given the recent changes in the family dynamics, it only makes sense for us to refresh and recalibrate the program to keep pace with the family,” network president Eileen O’Neill says in a statement. “The family has evolved and we are attempting to evolve with it.”

According to the press release, Jon “will continue his exclusive relationship” with TLC, but that’s not exactly the whole story…

While the release confirms that TLC is in development on an additional Kate project for 2010, Jon wants nothing to do with the network he believes has exploited his family, a source close to the situation tells E! News.

Apparently, Jon is “fed up,” has been trying to get out of his contract for months and hopes to be able to walk away from the couch-chatting gig sooner rather than later.

“He hasn’t been on camera with the kids in two months,” the insider says. “His goal is to never have to do that again.”

However, Jon did sit down to film “interview” material over the weekend. According to the source, it may well be his last.

“Jon has a lot of ideas for reality shows to do on other networks,” we’re told.

The controversial reality star will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where he has several meetings—as well as an appearance on Larry King Live—planned.

Forget the injuries on Dancing With the Stars. Try going one-on-one with a roller derby girl.

That’s exactly what Drew Barrymore did for Whip It, her directorial debut about a high schooler (Ellen Page) who secretly joins a roller derby team.

Barrymore, who also plays Smashley Simpson in the movie, trained with real-life Detroit Derby Girls star Racer McChasHer.

“We were wrestling and rolling around on the track, and both of us feel one of our skates and both our body weights on my thigh,” Barrymore said last night while promoting the flick at the Tough Cookies vs. Varsity Brawlers match in L.A. “I had a bruise that was a foot long and a foot wide. My entire leg was covered.”

But she isn’t complaining…

“That’s a merit badge,” Barrymore said of her bruise. “That’s cool.”

Besides, she added, “I don’t think there’s anything hotter or more fun to do than a girl fight.”

Jimmy Fallon, who plays derby MC Johnny Rocket, admits to being, well, scared of the derby girls.

“They’re badass people,” he recently told me. “They’re athletes and they’re tough. I couldn’t even drink with them, let alone hang out with them. If we went drinking, they drank me under the table. They’re the real deal.”

—Reporting by Brett Malec

With her tight tee playfully pulled down over her nether regions, you would think a bottomless Scarlett Johansson was posing for GQ instead of the November issue of Glamour.

But whatever. Rather than trying to figure out what gender is actually being targeted here, let’s just keep things simple and say the girl looks great.

As for what Scarlett dishes about once they get her talking…

“There was this rumor mill cranking out stories that I had lost 14 pounds—I could never lose 14 pounds,” says Scarlett when the subject of body image comes up.

“I hate seeing these ridiculous articles where [tabloids] guess someone’s weight…I can’t look at somebody who is 6 feet tall and 120 pounds and say, I’m going to get that body. That’s just never going to happen. You have to work with what you’ve got.”

And work it she has. From movies to music to marriage.

“I never really thought about getting married—it just kind of happened,” she says, referring to husband Ryan Reynolds. “You hope that a relationship makes you better, that you learn things about yourself…I feel more confident to explore things within myself that I hadn’t thought about in the past.”

Evidently, the feeling is mutual.

John Mayer is taking time out from tweeting, hooking up, denying hooking up and secretly hooking up to make a temporary return to his day job, announcing that his new album, Battle Studies, will be released Nov. 17.

“I approach music like a director doing a period piece,” Mayer said. “Where Continuum was R&B and soul, Battle Studies was written with the timelessness of Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young in mind.

“The melodies and message are concise and from-the-gut with the efficiency of simplicity.”

Well, living your life at 140 characters can do wonders for your succinctness.

True to form, Mayer has enlisted the help of a cute young blonde for his forthcoming effort. He duets with Taylor Swift on one of his tracks, “Half of My Heart.” He announced this week that “Who Says” will be the album’s first single.

A North American tour will launch sometime in early 2010.