(JTA) — Amid reports on pedophilia rings in Hollywood, former child-actor Corey Feldman said he and another boy were molested in their youth by people in show business.
Feldman, star of such iconic 1980s movies as “The Goonies,” “Stand by Me” and “The Lost Boys,” said this during an interview published Wednesday with The Hollywood Reporter.
“With me, there were some molestations, and it did come from several hands, so to speak,” said Feldman, who is Jewish. But with his friend, Corey Haim, a Canadian-Jewish teen star who died in 2010 at the age 38 after years of drug addiction, it “was direct rape, whereas mine was not actual rape,” said Feldman.
Haim was just 11 when, Feldman says, a producer raped him on a movie set.
Feldman said he would “love to name names” but, as the alleged crimes in question all passed California’s statute of limitations, “if I were to go and mention anybody’s name I would be the one that would be in legal problems and I’m the one that would be sued,” Feldman said. He also said that Hollywood had a pedophilia problem, with several rings of people who prey on children.
“We should be talking to the district attorneys and the lawmakers in California, especially because this is where the entertainment industry is and this is a place where adults have more direct and inappropriate connection with children than probably anywhere else in the world,“ he said.
Feldman’s comments follow statements on the same subject made by Elijah Wood during a recent interview with the Sunday Times.
Wood was talking about Jimmy Savile, a late British television star who was allowed to sexually abuse 72 victims, including children, even though some BBC employees knew of his actions, when he said Hollywood also had a problem with pedophilia.
“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organized. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind. There is darkness in the underbelly,” Wood continued. “If you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.”
Wood later said he has had “no firsthand experience or observation of the topic.”
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