My Thoughts after viewing My Truth: The Rape Of Two Creys
Right out front, I have to say that I was a big Corey Feldman fan in the 1980s. For that matter, I was a fan of Corey Haim. I knew they both had crash landings in life, but I was cheering for them to have a big comeback when they reunited for The Two Coreys TV series. I had no idea of the things that were happening in their lives back in the glory days other than rumors I'd heard about Feldman being molested.
Secondly, I have supported Corey Feldman's right to make this documentary all along. I've always believed he had a story to tell, and I felt and still feel this was something he needed to do. It just needed to get out there in Feldman's own words for people to hear and decide for themselves. What exactly should we believe after seeing this documentary, reading Corey's autobiography Coreyography and watching the Lifetime movie The Tale of Two Coreys?
Naming The Names
Let's keep this strictly to the documentary that played a day late to the public on Tuesday, March 10th. This is the 10th anniversary of the passing of Corey Haim. Corey Feldman delivered on his promise to name the names, and they included Cloyd Jon Grissom and Alphy Hoffman as people who molested Feldman, Dominick Brascia and Marty Weiss as people who Feldman says molested Haim. There's also Bob Hoffman, the alleged older gay lover of Alphy Hoffman, though I don't know that Feldman made any specific claim of him doing anything inappropriate with minors.
Who was the big name? We've had many guesses, but there were two that were close to the mark of who Feldman would say it was based on his clues. I'll leave one name out of it as he was never mentioned, but the big-name ended up being Charlie Sheen. That's right, according to Corey Feldman, Sheen took Corey Haim between two trailers on the set of the movie Lucas, convinced him that what was about to happen was something men just did in Hollywood, used Crisco oil to lube him up (I kid you not) and...
You can guess the rest. This is pretty much the story that Feldman told. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether this scene rings true to you. He had other people in the documentary claim that this happened. There were at least a half-dozen of them.
You can guess the rest. This is pretty much the story that Feldman told. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether this scene rings true to you. He had other people in the documentary claim that this happened. There were at least a half-dozen of them.
It's important to point out that nobody who was on the set of Lucas was among these witnesses. Nobody purporting to be a friend of Corey Haim outside of Hollywood. None of it. This is just what people in Hollywood said happened. How does Judy Haim, the mother of Corey Haim, feel about this? Feldman showed her appearance on Dr Oz around the time that the story appeared in the National Enquirer saying that her son was raped by Sheen. She said, and still says, that Sheen never did anything to her son, but she did say that Dominick Brascia raped him.
There were some people who were outraged because Corey Feldman didn't reveal the truly big names in Hollywood. Some Academy Award-winning people have been speculated on based on the fact that Feldman said he was going to name names and in his 2011 interview said a big mogul in Hollywood did this to Haim. However, people were not really paying attention to what Feldman has been saying all along.
Peoples Expectations And The Bungled Movie Premiere
His ill conceived Indiegogo campaign to raise 10 million dollars for a motion picture budget was so that he could make a movie based on Coreyography. When that didn't pan out, it was going to become a documentary based on the book, or at least the molestation allegations part of the book. It's much cheaper, and Cory has even said it was around $300,000 for the production of the documentary alone. The rest of the 1.7 million dollars was for bandwidth for streaming online and insurance to cover himself from the storm that may be blowing his way as a result of this documentary.
This movie was always just going to name the six people Feldman knew were involved with himself or Haim. We can speculate whether he knew more, as I do believe it's possible he did, but he's never hinted at any of that publicly. It's just speculation, and he's always only hinted at six names. Though he occasionally made it sound like it would be bigger than it would be, he's always come back to the idea of six names at various levels, one of them big.
Then we had the internet streaming debacle on Monday night. Here's where I don't believe we're necessarily getting the truth. The early official report was that the site had been hacked, but the site was up for most people. The movie never played and always had an error. The best people got was the first 15 or so minutes before the opening title sequence rolled and we start getting to the names. After that, it stopped.
You can take this at face value if you want, but some will look at Feldman's behavior on the night this thing was airing in front of select people in a theater in Hollywood. When Feldman heard that the stream stopped for the people at home, he stopped the movie. He was concerned that he wasn't doing right by the people who paid him $20 a piece to watch the movie and wondered whether he should continue to play it at the theater. I knew when I heard this that there was no way they weren't going to see this movie, but he had to look concerned. It was Rosanna Arquette who led the audience in saying to play it for them.
Rather than pick that all apart, let's move to the way social media was handled. Feldman made one comment to acknowledge the internet issues, but basically he was more worried about showing the movie in the theater to the important Hollywood people that were there and then going to the after party. There were no official comments on social media coming from him for a couple of hours, and Feldman didn't think to hire anybody to work social media in the event that there was an issue.
Obviously, there may not have been any sort of official statement that could be said other than, "We are aware there's a problem, and we will handle it. Thank you for your patience." They could have said something along those lines to make it seem like he cared. I'm not suggesting Feldman didn't care, but the way this whole situation was handled doesn't look right. That leads to all sorts of speculation about what really did happen. Ultimately it was decided on Tuesday at around 2 p.m. on the West Coast to just stream the movie in a loop for 24 hours so that people around the world who paid for it could watch it at a time that worked for them.
People who hadn't paid for a ticket could buy one and watch it. It almost feels like a marketing ploy to get more money out of people based on the buzz generated by the media who had already seen it. There were several news sources reporting the names and what went on in the theater, so people who were doubting Corey was doing anything now knew that he really was. If you don't have the money to hire a real marketing team, and there's no reason to believe Feldman does, this would seem to be the next best thing.
Feldman's Depiction Of Corey Haim And Judy Haim
Let's get to the way Feldman handled his supposed best friend Corey Haim. I've maintained that I don't necessarily believe these two were best friends or worst enemies. They had a complicated relationship, and this went on until Haim died. At times it seemed a bit toxic, and my impression was that Feldman was certainly the more controlling dominant person in the friendship. Sometimes he would come to the aid of his friend, but other times he manipulated him. Call it what you will, but I call it complicated.
My problem with the way Corey Haim is depicted in this documentary is that Feldman could have taken a little bit of time to respect his friend for his acting ability and the fact that he was critically praised and awarded back in the 1980s for his performances in multiple movies. I'm sure all of the people he hired to say certain things in the documentary, or speak their truths as may be the case, could have had a sound bite or two about the acting ability of Haim and how his performances were in certain movies. We don't see any of that.
We see plenty about the tormented victim. This is the only narrative that apparently mattered to Feldman. Haim is portrayed in the first few minutes once this thing gets going as being a drug addict who could charm people into helping him go get prescriptions. We also see him portrayed as a bit of a sex addict who didn't care whether he got it from men or women. You'll notice that we didn't hear much about him having sex with women. It was men, which means the continuing narrative that Feldman has painted of his friend being gay.
Feldman is going someplace with this, however. He's trying to use the narrative that what Charlie Sheen allegedly did to Haim on the set of Lucas resulted in him being a damaged person who would be sent into drug addiction and was hyper-sexualized. In other words, it wasn't Haim's fault that he was gay. Though you can clearly see the narrative being painted that Haim wanted sex with these people, it's still being laced with comments that he was molested. I'm not going to get into the psychological thing of how people who are molested are damaged, because I know that's true. My problem is the way Feldman portrays Haim. He's not doing a good job of respecting and showing love for somebody he still calls his best friend.
Then, there's Judy Haim. Basically, Feldman throws the mother of his best friend under the bus and gleefully backs it over her multiple times. She's portrayed as an uncaring mother who fed her child to the wolves, and Feldman has several people making comments throughout the movie to support this claim. Though he lets Judy speak in her own words from clips on Dr Oz, Feldman is the one controlling this documentary. Therefore, he can paint his narrative and have the last say on Judy.
It's been hinted at in a couple of interviews and certainly on social media that Feldman believed Judy Haim organized this group of people who attack him every day on social media. They have been dubbed The Wolfpack, and Feldman produces multiple emails and messages he says are from Judy giving orders to people on how to do what needs to be done to discredit Feldman. There's even one person who defected from that group who Corey flew out to California to make a few statements for the documentary.
I have an issue with the way he treated Corey Haim. I feel like he could have respected him more and not spent so much time trashing him and discrediting his character. If he must have used Corey to make a documentary on this problem in Hollywood, maybe that would have been a better way to go. I have to point out what the critics have said, also said by Judy Haim. They say Feldman should have told his own story and not used Haim. Some will say that without the use of Haim, the documentary never would have happened or drew any attention.
At times following this thing on social media feels like a bit of a LARP. Or, a made for social media entertainment program of some sort. This would include the anti Feldman side, or The Wolfpack. Whatever you want to call it. I don't know that they've ever called themselves that, and the name derives from somebody who made YouTube videos against Feldman whose last name happened to be Wolfe. It's interesting to note that they were pretty much silent on Monday night when this thing was having its disaster on the internet and weren't heard from too much on social media Tuesday. I'm sure they'll have things to say soon. The content in the documentary lends itself to serious skepticism.
Haim's Supposed Abusers Picking Sides?
What I find interesting is that the two supposed abusers of Haim that Feldman by his own admission introduced to him have chosen different sides. Marty Weiss, who has been outed for the crimes he committed against another young actor in the documentary An Open Secret, has sided with Judy Haim. He's very active on Twitter defending himself, accusing Feldman of lying and supporting Judy and Corey Haim.
A follower of this crazy story will find that Corey Feldman, many years after the alleged Haim/Weiss thing happened, was seen thanking Weiss publicly on the PA. This was when Feldman got his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Young Artist Awards ceremony in 2004. He and his then wife Susie we're both pictured with Weiss that day smiling. Keith Coogan, who's also in this documentary and played Weiss in A Tale of Two Coreys, has been shown pictured with Weiss after he knew about the allegations as well.
Dominick Brascia was the unidentified person mentioned by Corey Haim in that tense moment we've all seen many times from The Two Coreys reality show. He was the guy that Haim said Feldman introduced him to and remained friends with. Feldman's story about parting ways with Brascia in this documentary remains at odds with facts as they have been shown. However, Feldman has never uttered Dominick Brascia's name in this context until this documentary. Brascia, however, was the one who sold the story about Charlie Sheen to the National Enquirer. Feldman distanced himself from him with a "no comment" when The Enquirer asked for his thoughts on the story.
Closing Thoughts And Conclusions
What do I believe here? I believe bad things happened to both Coreys, and I tend to believe it was very bad. What the actual truth is, I don't know. What the actual truth is from this documentary when it comes to both of them, I don't know. I do know that Corey Haim deserves better than to be dragged through the mud 10 years after he died. If you truly are his best friend, when you're making a documentary, you show a little bit more respect.
Corey Haim loved his mother. His mother dearly loved him too. Even if Haim asked Feldman to tell his story, do you really think he would have been happy being portrayed as a druggie and a sex fiend? Would he have been happy with the hatchet job Feldman did on his mother? Somehow, I doubt it.
This documentary is the culmination of a lot of Feldman promises to the fans. I know people will want to see it, but do you really want to pay to see Haim dragged through the mud yet again? You will certainly go through many emotions if you let your guard down and watch this with an open mind, but will you be hearing the real truth? I suppose that's for you to decide, but I'd advise you not to be so quick to believe everything you see. It's certainly my belief that we have yet to see an accurate representation of what Corey Haim's life was, and I'm not so sure we'll ever see it at this point. Certainly, Feldman is not the one to tell it.
