Elijah Wood, best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" movie franchise, has revealed that high-powered predatory "vipers" are making rounds in Hollywood and taking advantage of young talents who are eager to jump-start their careers.
"I've been led down dark paths to realise that these things probably are still happening," he tells The Times. He is grateful that his mother Debra had been "far more concerned with raising me to be a good human than facilitating my career. I never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on."
The problem with young celebrities, says Wood, is that they do not really understand the gravity of sexual abuse and are fooled into thinking it's acceptable.
"If you're innocent, you have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed," he says. "People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey. What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can't speak as loudly as the people in power."
There have been rampant reports of Hollywood high-rollers protecting child abusers. Anne Henry, co-founder of Bizparents, an organisation that seeks to help young actors, says "Hollywood is currently sheltering about 100 active abusers."
Henry estimates that around 75 percent of child actors who "went off the rails" later in their careers were actually victims of sexual abuse.
"This problem has been endemic in Hollywood for a long time and it's finally coming to light," she says. "I don't believe the most powerful people in Hollywood are sitting in a darkened room plotting to spread paedophilia. But very bad people are still working here, protected by their friends."
Over the past 10 years, several big names in the movie-making industry have been convicted of sexual abuse. Some have left prison and unfortunately returned to Hollywood and continued to work with children like nothing bad ever happened.
