Will Bryan Singer’s Attempt To Preempt Esquire’s Expose Work?

This article was originally published via Disobedient Media and is my own intellectual property.

Establishment press was a-flurry recently as Hollywood Director Bryan Singer struck out preemptively against an upcoming article to be published by Esquire that will reportedly raise new allegations of Singer's involvement in the sexual abuse of children.

The New York Daily News reported on Singer's preemptive attempt at damage control: "Singer — who has been accused of sexual misconduct multiple times in the past — does not go into specifics but contends the Esquire piece “will attempt to rehash false accusations and bogus lawsuits."

Disobedient Media previously reported on child sex abuse in Hollywood, especially the concerns raised by the film An Open Secret, directed by Amy Berg. The 2014 documentary aired allegations of sexual abuse of children by industry bigwigs, including Brock Pierce, Hollywood Director and Producer Bryan Singer, Marc Collins-Rector and others.

In the wake of Singer's widely-reported Instagram post on the upcoming Esquire piece, The New York Daily News spoke with Gabe Hoffman, a producer of An Open Secret, who said: “I believe that there are potentially credible criminal allegations against multiple members of Bryan’s network.”

Disobedient Media also spoke with Hoffman, who compared the upcoming Esquire article with the exposure of Harvey Weinstein, expressing disgust that the '#MeToo' movement had not yet brought the issue of children abused at the hands of the powerful into question.

Gabe Hoffman also described Bryan Singer's close ties to David Geffen and Gary Goddard, both of whom were linked to the Digital Entertainment Network, or DEN, described at length in An Open Secret. Goddard was previously sued in 2014, along with Singer, for alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

Singer's well-known films include multiple entries in the X-Men film franchise, and 1995's The Usual Suspects. The Director and Producer has been the subject of numerous lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of young boys over the years, with the earliest dating back to his 1998 film Apt Pupil. During production, teenaged extras sued the film's creators for allegedly directing them to strip naked for a shower scene.

The New York Times reported on another lawsuit against Singer: "In 2014, another man, Michael Egan, accused Mr. Singer of drugging him and raping him when he was a minor in 1999. Mr. Egan later dropped the lawsuit." While some of the numerous lawsuits were subsequently dropped, others are ongoing.

The New York Daily News wrote of the latest suit: "Last year, a man named Cesar Sanchez-Guzman filed a lawsuit against Singer claiming the filmmaker had raped him in 2003, when Sanchez-Guzman was 17 — an allegation Singer has denied.”

The Cesar Sanchez-Guzman suit was filed just a week after Singer was removed from the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

In December of 2017, Deadline reported on Sanchez-Guzman's allegations: "Right after Singer’s removal from Bohemian Rhapsody... a lawsuit was filed in which Singer was accused of raping and sodomizing Cesar Sanchez-Guzman in 2003. The man claimed Singer assaulted him on a yacht when he was 17 years old. Representatives for Singer responded to the lawsuit by saying that the director “categorically denies these allegations and will vehemently defend this lawsuit to the very end.”

The lawsuit detailed the alleged incident:

Deadline additionally reported that a number of Singer's friends had also been arrested or accused of similar abuses, stating:

"Longtime Singer friend Gary Goddard took a leave of absence from his own entertainment design company after actor Anthony Edwards claimed the former Broadway producer molested him when he was a child. Another associate, former APA talent agent Tyler Grasham, who once credited Singer with helping launch his carer, was fired amid allegations of sexual assault."

Brian Singer, left, and Kevin Spacey, right. Image via Getty.

Disobedient Media previously covered the revelation that Singer's friend and colleague Kevin Spacey had also been accused of sexual assault by a number of men who allege they were minors at the time of the assault: Vanity Fair wrote that one of the victims, who is now 48, said of Spacey: “I would call him a pedophile and a sexual predator.”

According to Jezebel, after the abuse allegations against Spacey became public, Singer stated that he would work with the disgraced actor again, 'depending on the project.'

Given the appalling nature of the allegations made against Singer over the years, including the details of the 2017 suit, Singer's attempt to get ahead of the publication of the Esquire expose raises the probability that the material to be published by Esquire will be severe in their damning nature.

Overall, the long-term nature of the many allegations of child sexual abuse made against Singer draws a grim parallel with the parade of women who accused figures like Bill Cosby, wherein the victims were successively pilloried before the tide of public opinion finally turned against their abusers.

Will the upcoming Esquire article prove the turning-point in the saga of child abuse in Hollywood? If not, what will it take to create a "#MeToo" movement for children, who of all people are at the greatest power-disadvantage when in the clutches of the world's most influential figures?

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