A few days after Elijah Wood told the Sunday Times that many of his peers were “preyed upon†by powerful child molesters in Hollywood, Corey Feldman has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter about his own experiences with sex abuse in the industry. “Ask anybody in our group of kids at that time: They were passing us back and forth to each other,†Feldman says. The Stand By Me star went public with his history of molestation in his 2013 memoir, alleging that he and his friend Corey Haim had both been victims. Now, he tells THR, “Haim’s rapist was probably connected to something bigger and that is probably how he has remained protected for all these years … these men were all friends.â€
The actor also confirmed Wood’s claim that young actors — “usually 10 to 16†— were groomed though a series of Hollywood parties. “They would throw these parties where you’d walk in and it would be mostly kids and there would be a handful of adult men,†he says. “That’s the networking and 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.’â€
Feldman reportedly went to the police with his accusations in 1993, and later claimed “they did zero†to help him. He tells THR that he would “love to name names†but cannot, for legal reasons — the statute of limitations has expired, and he doesn’t want to open himself up to a libel suit. Still, he says, “If somebody came forward with a suit against one of these people [who molested me], I would certainly be more than happy to back them up. But that hasn’t happened.â€