Elijah Wood: Hollywood ‘in grip of child abuse scandal’

LORD of the Rings star Elijah Wood claims that young actors in Hollywood are being sexually abused by predatory “vipers” in the industry.

Elijah Wood says young child actors are regularly preyed upon by industry figures.

LORD of the Rings star Elijah Wood claims that young actors in Hollywood are being sexually abused by predatory “vipers” in the industry.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the 35-year-old Hobbit actor compared the abuse to the Jimmy Savile scandal that rocked Britain.

Disgraced entertainer Savile assaulted at least 400 people, mostly children, over five decades, in hospitals, schools and BBC’s London studios.

“You all grew up with Savile — Jesus, it must have been devastating,” he told The Sunday Times. “Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organised.”

Elijah Wood says Hollywood is full of “vipers”.

Elijah Wood as a child actor.

Wood, a former child star who has been working in films since the age of eight, said he believed the child abuse in Tinseltown was “probably still happening”.

He said he was lucky to have protected by his mother when he first arrived in Hollywood.

“I’ve been led down dark paths to realise that these things are probably still happening,” Wood said.

“There are a lot of vipers in this industry. There is a darkness in the underbelly — if you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.”

Wood’s comments echo those of former child star and sex abuse victim Corey Feldman, who told a British tabloid four years ago: “The No 1 problem in Hollywood was and is — and always will be — paedophilia.”

Feldman claims a “Hollywood mogul” is to blame for the downward spiral of his friend and fellow actor Corey Haim, who died of pneumonia aged 38 in 2010.

Originally published as Elijah Wood: Hollywood ‘in grip of child abuse scandal’