More accusations of sexual abuse by persons in power (part 1)

Before I publish the names of t alleged sexual abusers, I want to point out to my readers that unless the abusers have actually admitted to sexually abusing other persons, they should be presumed to be innocent of the accusations. However, that old adage comes to mind—where there is smoke, there is fire. Further, in my opinion, sexual abuse also includes trying to get another person to participate in some form of a sexual act. I am also cognizant of the fact that some women claim that they were raped or otherwise sexually abused when in fact, the so-called sex acts didn’t happen between them and other men. They do it to make a name for themselves.  However, there are also women who were raped or sexually abused but are too embarrassed to make that information public. And now, I will tell you about some of the sexual abusers in power.

Imagine that you are the director of a movie film that is costing the movie studio millions of dollars to produce. The movie is almost completed. Your star of the movie is John Doe who plays the role of a religious Catholic priest. His face appears in 214 camera shots.                                   

Then one day you read in the newspaper that your film star has  been accused of sexually molesting a small child fifteen years ago.

The studio tells you that they want his face removed from the scenes of the movie. In the past, that could be done by re-shooting the scenes with another actor playing the role of the priest. Further you have to bring in the other actors and actresses who were also in the scenes including the production staff to do what is called a do-over. It would also cost the studio another million dollars.

Ridley Scott must be kicking himself for not having signed Christopher Plummer, 87, to the role as he is said to have originally planned, instead choosing Spacey, 58, for his greater star power.

Now Scott’s getting a do-over from the studio. He’s going to hastily remake the film starring Plummer, which means that Plummer will plant himself in front of a green screen for 12 hours a day and pretend to be Spacey playing Getty.

As we now know, plenty of Hollywood movies were made by and performed in by child molester and rapists, but audiences generally aren’t aware of that at the time they are watching the movie, especially if the movie was shown decades earlier.

In 2004, Bill Cosby (star of a TV sitcom) was accused of sexual misconduct by 13 different women. The civil lawsuit claimed he drugged and sexually assaulted the women. Cosby settled with undisclosed terms.

Since 1992, Woody Allen has been suspected of having sexual relations with minors when Allen was found with nude photos of his partner Mia Farrow's now 20-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi. Allen and Soon-Yi were married in 1997. In 2014, Allen's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow accused Allen of sexual assault.

Brad Pitt was charged with indecent exposure in 1988 for an incident in which the Fight Club actor allegedly mooned (pulled his pants down) drivers on the Pacific Coast Highway in California.

Film Director Roman Polanski was charged with statutory rape, sodomy, and child molestation after he had consensual sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl. Most of the charges were dropped and Polanski pled guilty to statutory rape. The sentence was set to be probation, but when Polanski learned that the judge wanted to cause a media storm by sentencing him to jail time, he fled the United States.

In 1988, Sean Penn was charged with domestic violence for an incident involving his then-wife Madonna. Allegedly, Penn tied Madonna to a chair and gagged her before leaving the house to get alcohol. When he returned, he is rumored to have only untied the singer when she agreed to perform sexual acts.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off actor Jeffrey Jones pled no contest to charges of child pornography. However, he was sentenced to five years probation and is a registered sex offender.

There are many other actors and producers who sexually abused or attempted to have unwanted sex with young persons and\or women

Dr. Wendy James, who focuses on the early diagnosis and treatment of psychological issues said, “Every situation is unique, but today when we look at the stars, we hear it all the time, that they begin to abuse their positions. As a society we tend to glorify stars and society sees them as doing no wrong and a lot of time I see the frequency of narcissistic behavior in stars.”

Some movie stars and producers feel that they are above the law and certain kinds of behavior. 

Dr. Fred Berlin, the director of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit, said there is no definitive statistic that shows pedophiles are more prevalent among Hollywood’s elite.

I think we pay more attention to the accusations and are sort of more surprised in many ways because we thought we knew these people based on what we saw on TV and in the movies.

Most of these cases we are learning about get a certain amount of attention and the public is rightfully concerned when people are accused for their alleged sexual crimes. We become more aware of these problems when the accusations become national stories especially when someone who is accused of a sex crime is also a celebrity.

It is my belief that when someone is watching a movie in which the star has been accused of an unwanted sexual act, that knowledge may distract the moviegoer’s attention from what the star is doing or saying in the movie. That is why the studios want to remove that movie or television star’s image from the film. That can be done while the production is still ongoing but once the film has been sent to all the thousands of movie theatres; it is too late to correct the problem.

I am wondering how many victims from the past haven’t yet publicly declared the names of other stars and/or producers who raped or otherwise molested them.

Further, the sex scandals of our time in history also involve politicians and sports celebrities.

The recent discoveries of these sex scandals are not unlike a snowball. Once a snowball begins to roll downhill, it gets bigger and bigger as more sex scandals become known. How big is this snowball going to be?