Hollywood's Child-Molestation Crisis

[mlfun]

Who won the Oscars ?

Others, however -- including child-abuse experts -- said they were not surprised.

"This problem is more pervasive than people want to believe," said Paula Dorn, co-founder of the BizParentz Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the families of children working in the entertainment industry. "We have children trying to interact in an adult world."

Weiss' arrest "was not a shock at all" to lawyer Gloria Allred, who has negotiated settlements involving child abuse in the movie and TV business.

"A lot of people in the entertainment industry -- like a manager or an agent -- people who are not in a position of power look up to them," Allred told TheWrap. "Children are extremely vulnerable, and they can mistake attention for a person who likes them and cares about them. And then the grooming takes place."

A Minor Consideration, a nonprofit that supports former child star, said the situation is "worse today than it was in the '30s, and there was a lot of dirty stuff going on then."

Petersen (left) told TheWrap that his group is pushing for new regulations, including background checks and fingerprinting for talent agents, and a stronger enforcement of the California Talent Agencies Act, which is intended to protect artists from contract exploitation.

"We want to have the same protections internationally for children that are enjoyed by animals in the entertainment industry," he told TheWrap. "When a movie says, 'No animals were harmed during the making of this film,' how can we not have that for kids?"

Indeed, child-abuse scandals aren't new to Hollywood. In recent years, several actors have alleged that they were molested or raped as child actors. Corey Feldman, a pal of the late Haim, has also alleged sexual abuse as a child actor.

"There was a circle of older men that surrounded themselves around this group of kids, and they all had their own power or connections to great power in the entertainment industry," Feldman told ABC's "Nightline" in August.

Feldman blamed the sexual malfeasance perpetrated by a Hollywood mogul, whom he did not identify, as the cause behind his friend Haim's death.

"The No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia," he added.

Hollywood's Child-Molestation Crisis - Yahoo! Movies

[Disley]

Pedophiles are everywhere there's powerful people, the casting couch must be used for more than female starlets.
Politics are no different. The boystown scandal of the late 80s.

[Botnst]

Dang, those Catholic Priests have gone undercover in Hollywood!

[Donf]

They certainly have some bad habits.

[Botnst]

Bwah-hah!

[mlfun]

Is that French perp still a Hollywood hero ?

[Shane]

Exactly how do you think you make it any where at any age?

[Qubes]

^ Sorry, all we heard was hggggnnnoomphlischk hggggnnnoomphlischk hggggnnnoomphlischk hggggnnnoomphlischk hggggnnnoomphlischk hggggnnnoomphlischk.

[Shane]

^bitter

[Qubes]

garlic