Roman Polanski's wife declines AMPAS offer to join Academy

Two months after the expulsion of her husband, director Roman Polanski, French actor Emmanuelle Seigner has declined the membership to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

According to BBC, the 52-year-old actor responded to the invitation in an open letter published in French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

"How can I ignore the fact that a few weeks ago the Academy expelled my husband, Roman Polanski, in an attempt to appease the zeitgeist - the very same Academy which in 2002 awarded him an Oscar for 'The Pianist'! A curious case of amnesia!" Seigner wrote in the column.

The Board of Governors of AMPAS had on May 1 voted to expel comedian Bill Cosby and Polanski, who have faced sexual harassment and rape charges for years, in accordance with their newly-commissioned Standards of Conduct.

Seigner was one of the 928 artistes invited by the Academy as a part of its bid to boost diversity.

"The Academy probably thinks I am enough of a spineless, social climbing actress that I would forget that I have been married for the past 29 years to one of the world's greatest directors," she said.

In the past, Polanski has admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and pills in 1978 at actor Jack Nicholson's house.

He, then, fled the US to avoid jail and continues to be a fugitive in the country though he won a best director's Oscar for his Holocaust film "The Pianist" in 2003.