After asking for $10 million to make a documentary to identify members of what he called a “Hollywood pedophile ring,” Corey Feldman seems to have decided to just name his abusers instead.
The newest name he gave while appearing on Dr. Oz Thursday was Jon Grissom, an actor and assistant to Feldman during his time as a child star in the ‘80s. Variety reports that Grissom was imprisoned for child molestation in 2003, and is currently a wanted fugitive after failing to register as a sex offender. Feldman claims that he was molested by Grissom, and that Grissom still “taunts it and flaunts it” by posting pictures of Feldman to his social media account.
Feldman’s naming Grissom as one of his abusers comes after he appeared on Megyn Kelly Today last week and named Marty Weiss (his former manager, a convicted sex offender). Feldman says he is taking his story to the police, and also teased more names—specifically, he says that one person ran a child club in the ‘80s and is now working for the L.A. Dodgers. Rather than simply giving the press and the police as many names as he can as quickly as he can, it seems that Feldman, short of parlaying this into a $10-million documentary, is going to turn it into as many talk show appearances as he can.
This should not, however, in any way discredit Feldman’s claims. Hollywood has a long history of unwanted sexual contact with minors, and the law appears to support Feldman thus far (the men he has named are both sex offenders). And while we may find it distasteful that Feldman seems to be using this as a way to vault back into the limelight, that doesn’t make what happened to him any less awful, or the need for justice to be done any less great. These men deserve to be exposed and taken to the police, and regardless of his methods, Feldman is right to do so.