In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that has rocked Hollywood since October 5, 2017 , dozens of allegations of sexual harassment and abuse have been made against other powerful men, not only in the entertainment industry, but also in business, politics, and education. The rising public demand for accountability, symbolized by the hashtag #MeToo, reached Santa Barbara on November 10 in the form of a poignant personal essay titled “Yes Mom, There Is Something Wrong” by actor Anthony Edwards .
In his statement, Edwards, best known for his work as Dr. Mark Greene in the long-running television series ER, recounts the sexual abuse he suffered during the 1970s at the hands of Gary Goddard, an entertainment industry veteran who was at the time directing musicals in Santa Barbara. The incidents began when Edwards was a 12-year-old child appearing in plays directed and produced by Goddard for the Santa Barbara Youth Theater.
Since the appearance of Edwards’s claims on Medium.com, several more men have come forward, claiming to be victims of Goddard during that time, including Bret Nighman, an actor and an administrator at UCLA, and Mark Driscoll, a former actor who now operates a company focused on attraction and destination development. In response, Goddard has both stepped away from his leadership role with the Goddard Group, a company that develops concepts for theme parks and casinos, and issued a statement through a representative denying all charges and insisting that these accusations are entirely false.