Hollywood vulnerable to sex suits

But Casablancas's lawyer says the case is both without merit and doesn't come under the jurisdiction of California. "This is a very dangerous situation that encourages lawyers and plaintiffs to exploit this law and fabricate claims. The exploitation of these laws is the next scandal," says the attorney, Robert Wolf.

Legal experts say the deciding factor in all such cases will be viable evidence. Many accusations will involve acts more than a decade old, and the burden of proof still rests with those bringing the legal action. People also have only one year, beginning Jan.1, to file their claims.

"Attorneys or plaintiffs who think they want to file frivolous lawsuits under this law will be stopped cold by lawyers who need significant amounts of real evidence to win convictions," says Raymond Boucher, lawyer for Kiesel, Boucher and Larson, which is representing the plaintiff against Casablancas.

He says his firm rejects roughly half of possible cases for lack of evidence. "Many times we evaluate a possible case where we know the abuse happened, but we also know we can't prove it," says Jeff Anderson, a lawyer based in St. Paul, Minn., who has filed cases against the Catholic church over three decades.

Whatever the problem in determining the veracity, agencies that deal with sex abuse of minors say they welcome more scrutiny of the entertainment industry.

"Any situation where you have someone in power over young people who are vulnerable and are so desperate to get contracts ... is the worst kind of breeding ground for the sexual abuse of power," says Jonny Morales, executive director of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute, a San Diego-based group.

One other important difference is that the captains of industry in Hollywood do not hold the same position of public trust as priests, and the industry itself is well-known as an exploiter of youth for physical beauty. "The bar is way different here," says Michael Gross, author of "Model: The ugly business of beautiful women." "Modeling agents are not priests, but no one in the world thinks they are either."

Yet he also believes that male executives alone aren't to blame for Hollywood's dalliance culture. "The problem with the entertainment business is that there are just as many 14-year-olds going on 40 who set out to get exactly what they want and knowing how to get it," he says. "It's also human nature not to feel a lot of sympathy for someone [beautiful] who won the genetic lottery."

That explanation doesn't sit well with others, who feel it was silent acquiescence that led to sex abuse in the Catholic church, and it is public silence that allows it elsewhere. What is needed, say activists, is concerted effort but evenhandedness in ferreting out the worse cases.

"We as a society have to shape the agenda of correction without going overboard," says Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous, a child-abuse prevention group. "This is a watershed time for the issue of sexual abuse in which Americans can stand up and say it is no longer OK for a work culture to exist that sexually exploits the most vulnerable amongst us."

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