diff --git a/Mac/PythonLauncher/MyDocument.m b/Mac/PythonLauncher/MyDocument.m
index 86112c4b15d4..8f851e74e301 100755
--- a/Mac/PythonLauncher/MyDocument.m
+++ b/Mac/PythonLauncher/MyDocument.m
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
     const char *cmdline;
     int sts;
     
-     cmdline = [[settings commandLineForScript: script] cString];
+     cmdline = [[settings commandLineForScript: script] UTF8String];
    if ([settings with_terminal]) {
         sts = doscript(cmdline);
     } else {
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 564590ca72c7..0cdd349144e9 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -599,6 +599,12 @@ Build
 - Issue #15172: Document NASM 2.10+ as requirement for building OpenSSL 1.0.1
   on Windows.
 
+Tools/Demos
+-----------
+
+- Issue #12990: The "Python Launcher" on OSX could not launch python scripts
+  that have paths that include wide characters.
+
 What's New in Python 3.3.1 release candidate 1?
 ===============================================