Entertainment News

Corey Feldman 'not playing around' about naming Hollywood pedophiles — if his movie gets funded

By Christie D'Zurilla

Corey Feldman, who last week announced a campaign to fund a movie about alleged pedophiles in Hollywood, had to work to get his message across on the "Today" show Monday morning. Matt Lauer challenged Feldman's claim that he needs $10 million to make that film.

Feldman said there is "a lot of darkness" in Hollywood right now, and it will keep unraveling, the actor and musician told Lauer. What we're seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, Feldman said, and a feature film is the best way for him to share what he witnessed and experienced as a former child actor.

Also, the subject matter he's dealing with would require him to have a team of lawyers and a security detail to be around him at all times.

"I'm not playing around," Feldman said. "It's serious stuff and I vow I will release every single name that I have any knowledge of. Period. And nobody's going to stop me this time. As long as people support this."

As of Monday morning, Feldman had raised about $160,000 toward the $10-million goal.

When pressed by Lauer — who noted that "we've been down this road before" with Feldman, who said he was going to reveal Hollywood pedophiles in his 2013 memoir, "Coreyography" — the "Goonies" actor explained: "The publisher prevented me from writing the names down. They made me change the names."

In the book, Feldman did share stories of his own abuse, and that of the late Corey Haim, while the two were young actors. Haim, who struggled with substance abuse when he was older, died in 2010 at age 38. In recent years, his mother, Judy Haim, has tried to distance herself from Feldman.

"If he finally decides to release names and tell the world who they are, for the sake of more victims, I will be 100% behind it. But if he's waiting to release the names in the movie, I don't support that. He doesn't need $10 million to do it," she said in a statement to "Today."

Haim was more blunt to the Hollywood Reporter over the weekend, saying: "Come on. It’s a long con. He’s a scam artist. If he was serious about this, he’d share the information he has with the police."

Feldman explained to Lauer that the statute of limitations had expired in California and, talking to Megyn Kelly on Monday in a different "Today" segment, said it wasn't easy taking allegations to authorities even when he was within the 10-year period. He said he gave the names to authorities in Santa Barbara County when they were investigating Michael Jackson.

"When you're an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kid, you try telling the police, which is a very big thing to do," he said, "and especially when it wasn't even my situation, I was just answering for a friend, so the fact that I found the courage to even throw it in there and hopefully get some support, and then they were like, sorry, and they just shut it down."

In his "Corey Feldman's Truth Campaign" video, the "Lost Boys" actor linked the movie-financing effort to a recent marijuana-related brush with police and the sudden resignation of several of his band members, whom he said were "afraid for their lives."

"There are thousands of people in Hollywood who have this same information," Feldman told Lauer on Monday. "Why is it all on me? Why is it that if I don't release the names in the  next two months, six months, or a year, I'm the bad guy? I'm the victim here. I'm the one who's been abused. I'm the one who's trying to come forward and do something about it."