The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed that it’s opening an investigation into the existence of a “Hollywood pedophile ring,” one that’s long been alleged to exist by actor Corey Feldman, who’s made repeated claims over the years that he and his friend Corey Haim were molested during their child acting careers. Despite frequent claims that speaking up was endangering his personal safety, Feldman doubled down on those assertions this week, going on The Dr. Oz Show to name at least one of his alleged abusers, former actor (and, reportedly, his one-time personal assistant) Jon Grissom.
The Dr. Oz segment also included a sequence in which Feldman reported his claims to the LAPD itself, which told THR today, “When a report is filed on something as severe as this, an investigation is opened by the robbery/homicide division (which also handles sex crimes).”
Feldman’s renewed claims come as Hollywood is continuing a transition toward a new, hopefully better response to sexual harassment and assault. That includes the reactions and declarations that have met accusations against powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, and even renewed interests into claims—similar to those Feldman has been expressing for years—toward director Bryan Singer, who recently deleted his Twitter account amidst new scrutiny toward past legal actions against him. A new Playlist piece notes that articles about the allegations against Singer—which include accounts of him groping young men, sexually harassing them, and participating in parties designed to coerce them into having sex with older men—tend to quickly disappear from the internet. Nevertheless, the stories have continued to spread, with students at USC recently calling on the school to take the X-Men director’s name off of its media division.