Hollywood's Favorite Child Molester

One of the most popular movies currently playing at the box office, "Jeepers Creepers 2," is a teen horror flick directed by a stomach-turning registered sex offender who was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old-boy he targeted, groomed, seduced, and filmed in pornographic home videos.

Hollyweird strikes again.

The celebrity pervert's name is Victor Salva. The scheming Salva wrote children's books, participated in the Big Brother program, and worked at a San Francisco-area daycare center where he met his prey. He molested the victim, Nathan Winters, from the time the boy was 7.

Salva pleaded guilty in 1988 to five felony counts of child sex abuse; he served a measly 15 months of a pathetic three-year prison sentence. Winters' scars will last a lifetime.

Salva made Winters the star of his first feature film, "Clownhouse," a revolting low-budget movie about three murderous clowns who terrorize three young boys. (The movie won praise at Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival.) While working on the project, Salva forced Winters to perform oral sex on the "critically acclaimed" director and captured the acts on tape. When police raided Salva's home, they found not only the sex videos of Salva and Winters, but also tapes of naked young men taking showers and a pornographic album of still photos.

After he was released on parole, convicted child molester Salva went on to write and direct the "critically acclaimed" 1995 movie "Powder," in which he worked with many young actors. Winters and his mother bravely went public to protest Salva's involvement. But his employers at Disney -- Disney! -- stood by him, as did liberal stars of the film, Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum. Also a staunch defender and patron of convicted child molester Salva's: director Francis Ford Coppola, whose company produced "Clownhouse" and the two Jeepers Creepers movies.

Convicted child molester Salva's saviors say their "talented" friend has paid his debt to society and should be left alone to express himself creatively and contribute positively to the movie industry. Separate the art from the artist, they preach. Just move on. That is patently impossible and irresponsible, however, when the director's "art" involves the continued sexual exploitation of -- and twisted obsession with -- young boys.

Consider the wretched plot of "Jeepers Creepers 2": An ancient demon dubbed "the Creeper" preys on teenage basketball players trapped in a broken-down bus on a rural highway. Convicted child molester Salva's camera lingers on the shirtless torsos of the boys, alive and dead. The boys, all buff and beautiful in that pedophilic Calvin Klein/Abercrombie and Fitch kind of way, sunbathe on the bus roof. The lascivious Creeper stalks and harvests his victims, devouring "certain parts of their anatomy while laminating the rest," in the words of one movie critic. This orgy of bare skin and blood splatter, the sophisticated artistes lecture us, is convicted child molester Salva's redeeming contribution to society.

Convicted child molester Salva and his corrupt Hollywood enablers gripe that he made a "single mistake" and doesn't deserve to be "slandered." The plain fact is that convicted child molesters such as Salva are enormously predisposed to reoffending. Sgt. Gary Primavera, the police officer who handled the Winters case, said: "Victor has every characteristic of a pedophile that I know of -- and I've worked with enough of them. There was no remorse. The only sadness on Victor's part was that he got caught."

It is an abomination that this man continues to enjoy a position of power and influence over young actors, making movies targeted to teens that indulge his dangerous sexual fetishes. The only thing safe and appropriate for convicted child molester Salva to direct are toilet bowl cleaner commercials.

Hollywood's greedy ghouls think otherwise. "Jeepers Creepers 2" has grossed nearly $40 million so far and remains in the top 10. Francis Ford Coppola's co-executive producer, Bobby Rock, glibly told the San Jose Mercury News last week: "The film did very well at the box office -- that's all that matters to us.''

Sick.

Malkin is a graduate of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She lives with her husband in North Bethesda, MD.

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