One of the most painful truths revealed by the Harvey Weinstein scandal is that Hollywood was filled with alleged victims, of both Weinstein and of other powerful men, who didn’t come forward because they didn’t think they would be believed by other people in power.
So, the men’s careers thrived, and a culture of silence protected them from any accountability for what’s become recognized as widespread sexual harassment and abuse in the industry.
This culture of silence could also apply to another of Hollywood’s sordid but likely open secrets: The possible existence of an organized ring of pedophiles who have long preyed on teen and child stars.
For years, former ’80s child star Corey Feldman has been adamant that he and his friend Corey Haim were victims of predators in Hollywood. He said the men who abused them were all friends with one another.
“Ask anybody from our group of kids at that time,” he told The Hollywood Reporter last year. They were passing us back and forth to each other.”
Most tragically, Haim was sexually molested by a Hollywood superstar, Feldman has said. But Haim died of an overdose in 2010 at age 38 and never went public with the name of the A-list actor.
For years, Feldman’s claims have also been doubted, challenged or dismissed, as was the case in 2013 when legendary broadcaster Barbara Walters shut down his story during an interview on “The View,” according to the New York Post’s Maureen Callahan.
A clip from the interview has been circulating online in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, and Walters has been getting heat for it.
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The 87-year-old Walters, who has retired from “The View,” which she co-created, also made headlines in 2014 when she defended Woody Allen after molestation allegations against him resurfaced, Callahan said.
To Feldman’s claims about his abusers, an incredulous Walters asks in the segment, “Are you saying that they’re pedophiles?” she asks.
“Yes,” Feldman says. As he went on to warn parents of hopeful children, Walters chastised him.
“You’re damaging an entire industry!” she said.
The New York Post’s Maureen Callahan said people might not take Feldman seriously these days from a career standpoint, but his claims about men who have gone unpunished for abusing children and teens should be considered with much more gravity than in the past in the wake of the Weinstein scandal.
She said Feldman has been treated “as though he’s reporting alien abductions” but his accounts of abuse “have never wavered.”
In the Hollywood Reporter interview, Feldman said he had been molested by several different people but that what Haim suffered was much worse.
“Let’s just say it this way: I know every single person that interfered with Corey’s life and he knew every person that interfered with mine,” he said.
Feldman said the sexual abuse was directly responsible for Haim’s lifelong battle with drugs – and his eventual death. Before he died, Haim, who starred in “Lucas,” and “Watchers,” bemoaned how his allegations of rape and abuse went unchecked for decades.
Haim supposedly said a certain man systemically abused him as a young boy, both on-and-off-set, in their trailers and at parties attended by other A-list actors and Hollywood players. Ever since Haim’s death, various gossip sites have speculated on the identity of the A-list actor who hurt him.
Callahan said Feldman has made the painful public pronouncement that plenty in Hollywood knew about this group of men; he’s also said it still goes on. She expressed disappointment in someone like Walters, defending an industry that has continued to revere Allen and Roman Polanksi.
However, that could be changing.
Certainly, in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, no one would talk to a female victim in the way Walters talked to Feldman, Callahan said.
As for male victims, a small but growing number of actors — “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek and “Everybody Hates Chris” star Terry Crews — have come forward to say that they, too, have been harassed, groped or assaulted by powerful men in the industry.
Moreover, the victimization of children in Hollywood also made headlines this week after several prominent actresses — including Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence and Molly Ringwald — revealed that they had been molested, assaulted or otherwise sexually exploited as teens.
Witherspoon said a director sexually assaulted her when she was 16, while Ringwald said in an essay for The New Yorker that a 50-year-old crew member pushed up against her with an erection when she was 13 and a married film director “stuck his tongue in my mouth on set” when she was 14.
Perhaps, Callahan says, people will finally listen to what Feldman has been saying for years.
After Haim was omitted from the Oscar’s “In Memorium” tribute in 2011, he spoke up about what his friend suffered, Callahan said.
“I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,” he told Nightline. “That’s the biggest problem for children in this industry … It’s the big secret.”
