If You Can’t Do the Time . . .

Prince Frederick von Anhalt, consort to Zsa Zsa Gabor, has suggested that it is outrageous to require “the rich and famous” to serve time in jail, as if they were, well, no better than anyone else. This is a quaintly feudal notion of how justice should be served, but it is not the standard embodied in the law. If you can’t do the time, as they say in the slammer, don’t do the crime. That’s sound advice, even for the rich and famous.

And so Jim Bakker, who became famous as a television evangelist and rich by defrauding thousands of his admirers, has drawn a staggeringly stiff 45 year sentence for his financial misdeeds. Gabor, who first tasted fame when she was chosen Miss Hungary of 1936 and whose eight marriages and countless TV game-show appearances have given her wealth, has drawn three days in jail for violations of the Vehicle Code and for battering a traffic cop who objected to her actions.

If he behaves himself and exhibits suitable remorse, Bakker can expect to be free in about 10 years. Gabor--life can indeed be unfair--must serve the whole three days. Bakker concedes that he sinned. Gabor maintains that it is she who was sinned against. It comes as no surprise that this was how it all would end.