Elijah Wood says Hollywood has a paedophilia problem

LOS ANGELES — Before Elijah Wood starred as Frodo Baggins in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, he was a child actor — and now he is making some explosive allegations about the state of Hollywood.

The actor, recently accused Tinseltown of having a paedophilia problem, saying “a lot of vipers” are preying on children in the business.

“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,” he said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times.

“There is darkness in the underbelly. What bums me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power. That’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:“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.”

As a child, Wood starred alongside Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son and appeared in a remake of Flipper. He said his mother, Debra, protected him from the dangers of Hollywood as a child, and he “never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on”.

He added that he has been “led down dark paths to realise that these things probably are still happening”.

Wood did not go into detail on his accusations, not mentioning any specific project, person or time period in the interview.

Wood’s comments come after allegations against Woody Allen resurfaced in the past month. The Cannes Film Festival kicked off with a rape joke many took to be aimed at Allen and Roman Polanski. Thelma And Louise star Susan Sarandon, who was taking part in a discussion about women in film, addressed the allegations, saying she thinks Allen “sexually assaulted a child” but declined to comment further.

Wood was on a press tour to promote his new movie The Trust, which debuted earlier this month. AGENCIES