ROMAN POLANSKI’S wife has rejected an invitation to become a member of the awards body behind the Oscars, extended weeks after it expelled her husband.

French actress Emmanuelle Seigner accused the Academy of “insufferable hypocrisy” over the incident.

Polanski, who admitted unlawful sex with a 13-year-old in the United States in 1977, was ejected from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in May.

The 84-year-old director is currently suing the Academy over the expulsion.

Seigner, who was one of 928 artists invited to join the Academy as part of a bid to boost diversity last month, gave her response in an open letter published in France’s Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

She said: “I have always been a feminist. But 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!

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

Seigner has worked with her husband on films including “Bitter Moon,” “Venus in Fur” and “The Ninth Gate.”

The 52-year-old has also appeared in “The Man Who Laughs,” “The Diving Bell” and the “Butterfly.”

(SD-Agencies)