Child abuse: Elijah Wood says Hollywood nest of vipers

Actor Elijah Wood, who began his career in Hollywood at the age of eight, has claimed that a Jimmy Savile-style paedophile ring is strong in Hollywood.

Wood has opened up in an interview to the Sunday Times that Hollywood has been gripped by child sexual abuse cases similar to the Jimmy Savile scandal in the UK.

“You all grew up with Savile — Jesus, it must have been devastating,” said the 35-year-old actor.

“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organised. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind. There is darkness in the underbelly — if you can imagine it, it’s probably happened,” the The Lord of the Rings star said.

Wood said he avoided that underbelly, thanks to his mother who was “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. This bizarre industry presents so many paths to temptation. If you don’t have some kind of foundation, typically from family, then it will be difficult to deal with.”

Asked if he thinks sex crimes are “still a problem for Hollywood”, Wood said that “these things probably still are happening”.

“From my reading and research, I’ve been led down dark paths to realise that these things probably are still happening. If you’re innocent, you have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed, 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,” he said.

“There’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people. They can be squashed, but their lives have been irreparably damaged,” he added.