Hollywood Sex scandals-latimes.com

Before there was Roman Polanski, there was Errol Flynn. Before David Letterman, Charlie Chaplin.

Celebrity sex scandals have been around for as long as there have been celebrities -- yes, even before TMZ and Perez Hilton -- so the recent arrest of Polanski relating to his having sex with a 13-year-old girl and Letterman's confession of having sex with female members of his staff are just the latest in a long and sometimes sordid history.

"This is nothing new for the media and the public to become obsessed with this and report this in juicy, lurid, titillating detail," says film historian and critic Stephen Farber, who notes that there is "this very moralistic side to this country that sort of plays on that. Some of these events are not big events in other countries, whereas here they are sources of wagging tongues."

Some stars have seen their careers crash down upon them, but others have endured the headlines and have put their lives back in order.

Farber says some celebrities, such as Woody Allen and Ingrid Bergman, survived sex scandals because of "longevity. Some people go on a longer time," says Farber. "Memories are short."

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