'Grease' director objects to his image being used to promote Hollywood pedophile movie
Randal Kleiser, the filmmaker best known for directing Grease, is asking that his image be stripped from the trailer of An Open Secret, though his request to distance himself from the film about Hollywood pedophiles may have backfired.
While Kleiser, of course, is not one of the Hollywood executives accused of molesting children, he appears briefly in Open Secret because in 1999 he was making Royal Standard, a show produced and distributed by now-defunct Digital Entertainment Network. DEN, as it was known back then, is a big part of Open Secret because it was run by people accused of pedophilia, including Marc Collins-Rector, now a registered sex offender.
Kleiser is in the Open Secret trailer for less than two seconds, enough to cause his attorney, Michael Donaldson, to email producer Gabe Hoffman asking him to remove the image of his client.
Hoffman, though, tells The Hollywood Reporter that he has no intention of removing Kleiser from the trailer. In fact, because of the request, he says he now intends to add Kleiser's name to the film to accompany his image.
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Hoffman is in the process of re-cutting the movie in an attempt to get it a PG-13 rating as opposed to its R rating, and during the re-cut he says he will also add Kleiser's name when he is seen on screen.
"I didn't even know Kleiser was in our movie until his attorney threatened us." Hoffman tells THR. "How did director Amy Berg not place a name card on the director of Grease when he appears on screen? I guess no one's perfect."
Hoffman's gentle complaint of Berg is not the first time he has criticized has director, as he has also complained that she isn't helping to promote the movie. Berg did not respond to a request for comment.
Hoffman says a theme of Open Secret is not only to highlight Hollywood's child molesters but also "to show how close pedophiles can get to smart and talented people, like Randal Kleiser." Hence, he'll now be identified in the movie whereas before he was not.
While Donaldson didn't address the prospect of Kleiser's name being added to the film, he was very critical of Hoffman's decision to let the trailer stand as is, with Kleiser's fleeting image. He also disparaged the film's reception thus far, given the well-reviewed movie has appeared theatrically in only a handful of theaters and to very lackluster business.
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"I haven't seen the picture and I don't know anyone who has, but it's not the kind of film you want to be associated with," Donaldson said. "That he doesn't have the decency to take Kleiser out is despicable. An ethical producer would not cast a net broadly like that. I guess the good part is no one will watch the movie. There's always a silver lining."
Countered Hoffman: "America's children and their parents would be better served if Randal Kleiser spoke about his close brush with pedophiles instead of sending us an email about one second in a trailer."
See the trailer below.
More from The Hollywood Reporter:
Critic's Notebook: Tom Cruise, Show Us the Money — but Also the Weirdness
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