I prefer writing about films and offering constructive thoughts on how to make Hollywood better, but this issue needs to be addressed. In an interview with Nightlight last week, ’80s child actor Corey Feldman made some pretty sensational claims that need to be investigated. Specifically, he claims that he and fellow child-actor Corey Haim were “surrounded” by pedophiles when they worked in Hollywood and that they were both molested.
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Let’s start with some of what Feldman said:
The number one problem in Hollywood was, is and always will be pedophilia. It’s all done under the radar. . . But it’s the big secret.
There’s a lot of good people in this industry, but there’s also a lot of really, really sick, corrupt people in this industry. And there are people in this industry who have gotten away with it for so long that they feel they’re above the law, and that’s got to change. That’s got to stop.
I was surrounded by them when I was 14 years old. Surrounded. Literally. Didn’t even know it. It wasn’t until I was old enough to realize what they were and what they wanted and what they were about. . . till I went, ohmygod, they were everywhere like vultures.
There was a circle of older men that surrounded themselves around this group of kids. And they had power or connections to great power in the industry.
IF this is NOT TRUE, then Feldman is besmirching a lot of good names by casting suspicion upon an entire industry of people. Investigating these claims is the only way to clear Hollywood’s “good name” and remove that suspicion.
IF this IS TRUE, then serious consequences must follow.
When children are delivered into the custody of adults, be they priests, teachers, or Hollywood handlers, it is an obscene betrayal of trust to either engage in sexual conduct with those children or to turn a blind eye as others prey upon them. If there is a group of men in Hollywood who are getting away with this, then that group needs to be exposed, jailed and driven from Hollywood. And if Hollywood has turned a blind eye to this group, as Feldman seems to be saying, then what Feldman alleges strikes me as akin to what happened with the Catholic Church — an organization Hollywood routinely savages on this very issue (apparently hypocritically). And frankly, that means a much larger shake up as well as civil and criminal penalties for a great many, including the studios that turned the blind eye.
Also, while I do not know whether or not these allegations are true, I must concede the appearance of a pattern in Hollywood. Indeed, over the past decade Hollywood has shown itself to be more than willing to ignore child molestation and other sex crimes allegations. Consider for example that DISNEY hired convicted child-molester Victor Salva to direct Powder, a film about a teenage boy, and later, UA/MGM released his film Jeepers Creepers, about a killer that dissects and eats teenage boys. Salva had been convicted of videotaping himself having sex with a 12-year-old male actor from a film he was directing. And his career continues today — his next movie about teenage boys being killed will be released next year. There are others, like cause célèbre Roman Polanski, who Hollywood elite defend as the victim of an overbearing system, but there’s no reason to list them. The point is that Hollywood has a history of looking the other way.
So whether Feldman’s claim is true or not, it needs to be investigated and the truth uncovered. And if it is true, then something more needs to be done than just renewing the contracts of the people involved.