80s star Corey Feldman has recently spoken out to The Hollywood Reporter about the problem with child abuse in Hollywood, including his own experiences and those of his friend and co-star Corey Haim.
His comments follow Elijah Wood’s recent comments that there was ‘something major… going on in Hollywood’, relating to child abuse, and that he was commenting from other peoples’ experiences, not his own.
Feldman has been in movies like The Goonies and The Lost Boys, and starred with Haim in The Two Coreys, and he has revealed in the past that he was preyed upon by two men in the industry. One of the men is still a prominent figure in the industry, and Feldman would not reveal his name for fear of being sued.
His co-star, Corey Haim has also been victim to attacks, and was raped at the age of 11 years old on a movie set.
Feldman opened up about how having his own son has brought even further into the light just how horrifying this case was.
“My son is 11 now, and I can’t even begin to fathom the idea of something like that happening to him. It would destroy his whole being. As I look at my son, a sweet, innocent, 11-year-old boy and then try to put him in Corey Haim’s shoes, I go, “Oh my God — well of course he was erratic and not well-behaved on sets and things like that.” What more could we expect of him really? Everybody deals with things differently.”
Feldman revealed that some Hollywood parties for child stars to network with older Hollywood stars were often enabling closer relationships to form that eventually sometimes turned into opportunities for child abuse.
“The lure for kids is that they work in adult world. All of their friends become adults and they very rarely get to interact with other kids, especially because they don’t go to school… So when somebody approaches you and says, “Hey, this is a Hollywood party where you get to hang out with the powerful people in Hollywood,” well that sounds like a great opportunity.
“That’s when you become pals with them and you get their phone numbers and you get their mom’s phone numbers and the next thing you know they talk to the moms and say, “Hey, I want to take Corey out to an event. This would be great for him. Let me pick him up and take him.” And they turn that power over right away to the publicist or the photographers.”
Elijah Wood has even stated that he has probably avoided these experiences because his mum wouldn’t let him got to these parties.
Corey Haim passed away at the age of 38 from drug addiction. Feldman also opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about missing him.
“He was my best friend. I miss the chemistry, I miss having my best friend. He was the only person that could make me laugh unstoppably. He had a charisma about him and a charm and a sense of humour that was unparalleled. That’s something that you don’t find really twice in a lifetime.”
Though Feldman couldn’t provide direct details on the incidents of child abuse that he and others had experienced for legal reasons, he was pleased to be able to weigh in on investigating this very important issue.
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