Angela+Z’s+2017+OpEd+Article

=The Power of Pedophiles in Hollywood= ((wish I could talk smack about Woody Allen all day but sadly he isn't convicted yet and his only crime is falling in love :( with his adopted daughter))



Child abuse, specifically sexual child abuse, has been a constant issue that is commonly dismissed or swept under the rug. For decades the sexual assaults on young boys by men in the Catholic church have been swept under the rug, but are now recently investigated. But the normalization of child abuse and adults (mostly men) taking advantage of children in vulnerable situations is widely apparent in Hollywood as well. This is about pedophiles with power in Hollywood who use this power to intimidate or threaten children or sexualize children in order to encourage pedophilia. In 1931, a famous German director named F.W. Murnau (best known for silent film milestone, Nosferatu) had died after his car crashed into an electrical pole in Santa Barbara. Tragic, right? But he wasn't driving it, a 14 year old Filipino boy was. Additionally, Murnau, who by the way is 42, was later reported to have been possibly distracting the young boy with certain oral activities. Of course as Murnau died, he wouldn't have been able to suffer the consequences had someone sued him for his actions or had a public backlash but even if he had lived, nothing probably would've happened. Situations like Murnau's only made living in Hollywood more difficult for openly gay men like William Haines, as Murnau's behavior was labelled as homosexual, not as pedophilia. Nothing would be done about the lost innocence for many child actors who were taken advantage of by adults who promised them a great film career or threaten to destroy what chance they had for one.

One of the first and most severe cases of child abuse, not just sexual, would be with Judy Garland. When Judy Garland was under contract at MGM, she would be routinely molested by older men including studio chiefs, like Louis B Mayer who would constantly grope her breast when speaking on how she "sung from the heart". Garland came at a time where MGM was starting to hire kid actors in order to make family films to attract families to watch in the theater, thus make more money. While there, she would of course star in her most famous film role as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz in 1939. At the time though, there was speculation that another famous child actress would take the role and that would be Shirley Temple, possibly the most famous child star. In 1939, Shirley would be 11 however and at the peak of her career. However, it would be her beginning roles in short reels, under the guise of comedy, that the ugly side of Hollywood would rear its head. Those shorts would be called Baby Burlesks made by Educational Pictures (which were, in fact, not educational). All the children involved in these shorts were around the age of 4 and walked around in diapers but acted in "adult" roles. Many of the shorts were racist (the "Kid in Africa" would have black children playing cannibals trying to devour Shirley Temple's character and she would be saved by a white child), but the most unsettling part would be the presentation of the children to the audience. The sequence that had horrified me the most however, wasn't with the dealing of Shirley Temple's character (even though her character would be ordered in one short to seduce a politician) but with the boy characters in "War Babies". The scene in question goes from 3:45 to 4:44. media type="youtube" key="ECzC7YIt7F4" width="560" height="315"

Historian John Kassan would write that the intended humor of these shorts "rests on the difference between adult knowledge, desires, motives, and pleasures, and childhood innocence". Another "humorous" scene is from "Kid in Africa" where after Shirley is saved by cannibals and has a weirdly post-honeymoon scene at the Hotel Squaldorf, young boys are seen in a situation where the intentions of the director are, yet again, highly suspicious. The scene is from 6:40-6:55.

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Shirley would move on from these shorts however. She would begin to make her own career as the singing and dancing little girl with a head of blonde ringlets. For the most part, her career would be tame and she not as sexualized as she was in her beginning films, with a few rare and questionable moments. Just seconds that would change a dance between Shirley and her costar into something less sweet and innocent. One particular moment is in the movie Captain January in 1936, when Shirley was 8 years old. The moment is just a mere 4 seconds from 2:39 to 2:43. media type="youtube" key="Zpqt3zgdYUw" width="560" height="315"

Now with Shirley Temple, a child who is often thought of as solely a talented and adorable little girl, these nitpicking of moments where her youthful innocence could be mistaken for more sinister themes, is criticized by some. Those who criticize points I have made would mention that those who worry about the involvement of pedophiles in the production or the deliberate pandering to them, are overreacting and seeing something sinister in something meant to be sweet and innocent. I understand that this is a popular stance with those who believe that my examples were far too tame to prove the presence of pedophilia imagery brought on by pedophiles (or are too blinded by their nostalgia to take on any other perspective than "Animal Crackers" Shirley Temple). So to bring up an example of a little more blatant usage of a child actress by Hollywood to convey a "mature" charm (was sexualized) to appeal to pedophiles, we have Brooke Shields.

Long before Toddlers and Tiaras, there was Brooke Shields. Brooke's first notable film role would be in Pretty Baby in 1978, when she was 12 years old. Shields would play a child prostitute living in a brothel in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. The film would include conflicts on who would Shields' character sell her virginity to, and if she would continue her "marriage" to a much older man who previously photographed Shields in the movie, while she was nude. Oh yeah, child nudity? Which is child pornography? It's in the movie. Unlike Jodie Foster's portrayal of a child prostitute in Taxi Driver (which to me is also unsettling), Foster had a body double so no nudity of an underage person was seen, Shields did not. There is a scene where Shields jumps out of a bathtub and covers herself with a towel but another character takes it off so that her genitalia is briefly seen. 12 years olds, Dude. Who in their right mind that is not a disgusting, loathsome, revolting rat that desires to force themselves on children would want to see this 12 YEAR OLD GIRL'S GENITALIA? WHO ASIDE FROM THE PEDOPHILES THAT THIS DIRECTOR WAS OBVIOUSLY CATERING TO OR EVEN APART OF WOULD ENJOY THIS? Brooke Shields would devastatingly (or successfully in the eyes of her mother who managed her career) be typecast into the pedophile's fantasy prepubescent girl as her career continued. After Pretty Baby she would star in movies like Wanda Nevada (1979), where she falls in love with men old enough to be her grandfather when maybe she just needed a father figure (like Natalie Portman's preteen character in Leon: The Professional who would confess to the much older Leon that she loves him). But, the role that Shields would be most famous for is in The Blue Lagoon where she played a girl stuck on an island with Christoper Atkin's character and they reach puberty and fall in love. Unlike Pretty Baby, Shields would have a body double here for certain scenes (one including intercourse) as nudity was very prevalent. Shields would have to tape her hair on her bosom in order to prevent anything showing as apparently clothes didn't exist on this island. Shields acting was panned and her following films would be criticized, like The Blue Lagoon, partly due to her acting, like her following film Endless Love in 1981 (which had an X rating due to how many fornication scenes she was in! She was 15!). As Shields made more than 1 film involving the sexualization of children, it is obvious that those movies sold not only tickets, but the idea of having carnal desire for a preteen was acceptable.

Before were examples of usually young girls that were to present a "charm" on audiences that made pedophilia become more normal. Next though are the big players in Hollywood that would be defended of their pedophilia. Bryan Singer is a director of films like The Usual Suspects, X-Men and others, who was accused of promising a 15 year old boy, Michael Egan, a role in X-Men, which Singer followed up with feeding the child alcohol and drugs, and then sodomizing him. Egan later claimed that Singer raped him regularly, threatening that, if he told anyone about it, he would murder his family. Also Singer would be accused of feeding another 14 year old boy Quaaludes and alcohol then anally raping him. Additionally, Singer would be accused by underage extras of his movie Apt Pupil that he forced the extras to strip naked so he could film them in the shower. Singer has managed to throw all of these accusations out, allowing him to work as one of Hollywood's most successful directors. Even if Singer himself wasn't proven guilty to these accusations, he is a definite member of a Hollywood group of men who host parties in order to lure young boys into being trapped with aroused men twice their age. Michael Egan, who accused Singer of rape, also filed charges against Marc Collins-Rector and two of his associates, as did other boys. But one of those boys was Alexander Burton who was given the role of Pyro in Singer's X-Men. When the charges came in, Collins-Rector fled the country but when found later by police, he confessed to five charges of sexually assaulting minors. Another person in Singer's crew is Brian Peck. Peck would appear in minor roles in Singer's X-Men and X-Men 2 (with a little jail sentence for sexually assaulting a 15 year old in between). Peck would even do the commentary to X-Men with Singer. Peck also worked as a dialogue coach, often on Nickelodeon to coach child actors. He spent 6 months having a sexual affair with an unnamed actor on The Amanda Show until the family charged him with sexual assault in 2001. He went to jail but came right out and was hired by Disney to work as a dialogue coach on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. He's only banned from direct contact with children, so he is able to work on children's series and on sets with underage actors. Makes sense.

Nickelodeon and Disney didn't stop there in employing child molesters. Jason Michael Handy, who described himself as a "pedophile, full-blown", was a production assistant in Nickelodeon when we contacted a 14 year old girl in 2004 over the internet. Handy had introduced himself as a Nickelodeon producer and promised the young girl a television career and later he flew to Michigan to meet her. When he was arrested for molestation, the police found a cache of child porn in his home. He had also been found volunteering at a local church so he could prey on children there, too. In 2009 after serving his sentence, he went to North Carolina where he did the same thing all over again. With Disney however they hired a director, Victor Salva. Salva had directed Clownhouse (1989) when he was convicted of sexual misconduct with a 12 year old boy, Clownhouse's star. Commercial videotapes and magazines containing child porn were also found at his home. Salva pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct, oral sex with a person under 14, and procuring child pornography. He was sentenced to 3 years in state prison, of which he served 15 months and completed parole in 1992. Only 3 years later would he direct the film Powder, a Disney film. From then on he would direct Jeepers Creepers and its sequel and other movies. But why are all these men in power who like to attack children given a pass? It cannot be for their contributions to art as demonstrated by Salva, a completely mediocre, might I say trash director with no redeeming qualities. Why must he be protected and be able to easily find work or funding? Why do convicted child molesters score jobs near children right after their arrest? Must we regulate much more in depth background checks? What can we do to help protect the victims of this abuse?

In recent years, many former child actors have come to speak out against the abuse they faced as a child. Todd Bridges from Diff'rent Strokes has spoken about abuse from his publicist at age 11, Elijah Wood (although not a victim himself) also spoken about the dangers he almost encountered due to his findings of the luring of children into "cool" parties filled with alcohol, drugs, and horny Hollywood executive producers which he avoided. Corey Feldman would also speak on the need for punishment that these men deserved that had stolen the innocence from children and had easily gotten away due to connections or wealth. Then there is Corey Haim, where he was reportedly raped on the set of Lucas, and told Feldman that an older man told Haim "that is was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business to have sexual relations, that it was all 'guys do'". Haim was 11 at the time. Probably due to these sexual assaults, the two Coreys would have drug addictions that would control their lives, but Haim more so as he would soon die at the age of 38 due to drug overdose, ruled as pneumonia. Feldman claims to know the man who assaulted Haim but as the statue of limitations in California made it impossible to press charges, he has not revealed who he is. If he did, Feldman believed he would be sued for libel while the rapist could not be touched.

But can we talk about pedophilia in Hollywood without mentioning Roman Polanski's rape of a 13 year old girl in which he went to jail for 42 days and then fled to France? He would be arrested at Switzerland on behalf of the US police but many Hollywood figures were chiming in defense of Polanski. Harvey Weinstein believed that Polanski had already "done the time" so the situations should just be laid to rest and Polanski be a free man. Polanski took this 13 year old girl's security, trust and innocence and could possibly take another girl's but so what? He went to jail for a little over a month, we should be apologizing to him for wasting his time. No. I believe Polanski should go to jail even for a crime that was decades ago, as a crime (especially one as revolting as statutory rape) is a crime. As Polanski is one of, if not the most famous directors who have committed sexual assault, I believe that the dismissal of his abdominal crime only perpetuates this circle of pedophilia in Hollywood and trickles down to let lesser important people to not be punished for their crime (or if they do get sentenced, will find work easily when they get out). But where do the pedophiles in power start and end? Is it just naturally a part of Hollywood glossed over that it cannot be separated? Will the Catholic Church changes its ways before the Hollywood industry does concerning the safety of young children (mostly boys)? Who knows. Of course victims of the crimes should seek to press charges but in such a shady industry like Hollywood where by attempting to bring justice can instead bring permanent blacklisting for the victim, it seems like the pedophiles always have the upper hand.