Child molestation is never a laughing matter, but there’s at least some irony involved when the molester is the squeaky clean pastor guy from 7th Heaven. Actor Stephen Collins, who has also appeared on Revolution, among other things, admitted during a secretly-taped therapy session (full audio here) to exposing himself to several underage girls as young as 10, and to putting one girl’s hand on his penis. He’s currently being investigated by the police and I’m sure there are some complicated legal issues when dealing with a secretly-taped therapy session, but in the meantime, he has lost a job on Seth MacFarlane’s Ted 2.
Producers for the Seth MacFarlane sequel had hired Collins but production sources tell us he was almost immediately fired after TMZ posted the story.
This seems like dubious punishment at best.
TMZ has also learned … Collins was the national co-director of The Committee for Stress-Free Schools, part of The David Lynch Foundation. A Foundation official tells us Collins contacted them 2 years ago and asked to be removed from his role for “personal reasons.” When we called he was still on the website as the Co-Director. The website was immediately changed. [TMZ]
As always, it’s hard to know whether to treat child molesters as dangerous, life-ruining criminals or truly sick people who need help, because… well, they’re both. It sounds like Stephen Collins at least attempted to get help. Which is… something, I guess? It’s hard enough getting work as a character actor as it is, after this it’s going to be damn near impossible. …Have we considered that maybe he was a little *too* good at playing a pastor?
Let me just say this: I’ve long maintained that the most “wholesome” of “family entertainment” always seem to have the strongest undercurrent of creepy molester vibe. We should probably arrest the entire Disney Channel as a precaution.