Pedophiles in Hollywood ‘surround’ children ‘like vultures’: former child actor

by Kathleen Gilbert

August 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One famous former child actor has described widespread pedophilia as the longtime “big secret” in Hollywood, where he said older male Hollywood magnates surrounded child actors “like vultures.”

“I can tell you that the number one problem in Hollywood was, and is, and always will be pedophilia,” actor Corey Feldman told ABC News’ “Nightline” August 10.

Feldman, who began his television career at the age of three, and is known for his roles in movies such as Gremlins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, said the “casting couch” - a term to describe trading sex for roles - applied even to some of the youngest Hollywood stars.

“It’s not done the same way - it’s all done under the radar,” said Feldman. “It’s the big secret.”

Feldman, who says he was one of many sexual abuse victims in Hollywood, described how he slowly came to grasp the reality of Hollywood culture.

“I was surrounded by them when I was 14 years old. Surrounded. Literally. Didn’t even know it,” he said. “It wasn’t until I was old enough to realize what they were and what they wanted, and what they were about. ... Oh my God, they were everywhere, like vultures.”

“There was a circle of older men that surrounded themselves around this group of kids,” he continued, “and they all had either their own power or connections to great power in the entertainment industry.”

The claim that a culture of secrecy protects massive-scale pedophilia in the world’s entertainment headquarters was republished in a handful of online gossip publications, and reached CNN, Huffington Post, and MSNBC only through their respective entertainment blogs: a conspicuous lack of coverage that was questioned by Catholic League Director Bill Donohue.

“The same mainstream media which hyperventilates over reports of a priest accused of a ‘boundary issue,’ such as kissing a girl on her head, seem to accept with aplomb Corey Feldman’s recent remarks about the prevalence of pedophilia in Hollywood,” Donohue told LifeSiteNews.com.

According to a report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice commissioned by U.S. bishops, four percent of all Catholic priests between 1950 and 2010 were accused of sexual abuse, of whom three percent were found guilty.

“Catholics, in particular, would love to know why the ho-hum reaction to Feldman’s admission: Is it because reporters have long known of widespread child molestation in Hollywood and have an unwritten rule not to press the issue? If so, the reaction to miscreant priests appears contrived.”