I’ve started calling this year Sex Predatorgate 2017. In Sex Predatorgate 2017, I’ve gotten more than a few emails asking if it’s time to talk about John Travolta. If you’ve been following this blog for years, you might remember that we did extensive coverage of the accusations lodged against Travolta, especially when the stories were really exploding in 2012. Travolta is allegedly a serial harasser and a serial assailant, mostly of young, male masseurs, but sometimes of young men in the general service industries (like, workers on cruise ships). Last time I checked – circa 2012 – more than seven men had accused Travolta of harassment or assault.
It’s difficult for mainstream media to cover the multitude of accusations and stories around and about Travolta, because – much like the Kevin Spacey situation before this year – it would involve “outing” Travolta. It’s been widely reported in the tabloids for years and years that Travolta has had a series of consensual relationships with men. That’s one thing, and if the stories were just about “Travolta is on the downlow with consenting male adults,” I would completely understand why no one wanted to touch those stories. Put that to the side though – he’s also been accused for YEARS of abusing service industry workers. Some of them have even sued him.
So… I don’t know if Travolta is about to become the next person outed in some exposé, but it feels like something is about to happen:
Lionsgate has iced John Travolta’s Gotti biopic. Just 10 days before the film was set for domestic release under the studio’s Lionsgate Premiere banner, EW can confirm that the project — about the life of ill-fated mobster John Gotti, head of the infamous Gambino family — has been sold back to production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis.
The Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider first reported the news, further indicating that producers will seek new distribution soon. A 2018 release now seems likely, instead of the originally planned Dec. 15 bow. Also starring Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, as Victoria Gotti, and veteran actor Stacy Keach as Gotti’s mentor, Aniello Dellacroce, Gotti was directed by Entourage star Kevin Connolly, from a script co-written by Haywire and The Limey scribe Lem Dobbs and The Accused star Leo Rossi.
Further details, including a reason for the sale, remain unclear.
Deadline reports that this was all some kind of internal distribution beef, as in the film was pulled at the last minute because the actual release of the film was going to be small, and Gotti producers wanted a wider release. But… it does feel weird, right? That all of a sudden, producers have pulled back the release just 10 DAYS before it was due to premiere? Hm.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Idk if it would be different now, he was already exposed and the cult, Scientology shut it down. ..
It was the cult that exposed him, when they thought he was bugging out last time.
Oh, that’s right – I’d completely forgotten about the Scientology attachment! I’m in Australia, and these stories – especially those about one particular masseur, were widely reported here, too. And the next thing you know, he appears on our doorstep in full pilot regalia, and feted because of his connection with our national airline, QANTAS. Then we hear no more about the allegations, just like has happened in so many cases in the US and here. Now that the lid is off this putrid can of worms, let’s get it all out, once and for all, and leave these filthbags nowhere to hide.
Wasn’t there some kind of accusation that he got too familiar with a male massage therapist?
Yes there are many male massagers that were suing him for sexual assault. He end up settling with I do believe all of them so it didn’t have to go to court.
Sky- if he settled well enough with previous accusers and got a confidentiality agreement, they won’t be talking. But if he continued the bad behavior with others who haven’t said anything yet, he may be in trouble. If he took the warning after all the publicity and cleaned up his act to keep it consensual, then he’ll be safe. His call.
@JWOOLMAN
I agree I don’t think he stopped the behavior he just became more Savvy at hiding it and choosing victims carefully.
I think Scientology is losing its power and that is why we are seeing some of the well known predators like Travolta, Ranch actor and maybe even Tom C being exposed.
If Tom is king of Scientology, Travolta is the crown prince.
Let 2017 be the year where men in Hollywood and Politics got their just desserts for assaulting, raping and ruining women’s and men’s lives…
Don’t forget, like Danny Masterson, he has always had Scientology helping to cover his crimes.
He should but I mean who would want to see this anyway?
I think right now the press is focused on original reporting. But for Travolta all you need to do is basically copy and paste all past allegations against him.
A nice side effect of this is that Scientology will loose a lot of their already declining power.
Am I the only one who only knows Travolta by the shyte movies, like Killing Season (nominated for worst fake beard in history and worst attempt at Serbian language by a human being) and Battlefield Earth? I just went to his IMDB and it reminded me he was also the main star of Pulp Fiction and a bunch of “old” famous films. How the heck did I forget he was in those?
Faceoff is the one I remember. Along with Grease and Welcome Back Kotter, where he got his start.
@third ginger – Totally forgot about Saturday Night Fever.
Hi, Nanny! I don’t know how old you are, but when I was in my 20’s Travolta was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He became a sensation in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and GREASE was thought to revive the movie musical [it did not] It’s almost impossible if you were not there to know how big a star he was. There was no discussion of his sexuality, of course. He was just a sex symbol and the future of Hollywood back then. PULP FICTION was his comeback after a long series of bombs. With the advent of the internet, it became impossible for rumors not to be noticed. If Travolta is a predator, taking advantage of the powerless, it will be one of the greatest downfalls in Hollywood history, a person going from being idolized as few have been, to infamy. But if its’ true, so be it. Sorry to be long winded. I love Hollywood history, one of my hobbies.
Not old enough to see his first hits in the cinema, but I saw them on home video as a kid. I just forgot all about them. Pulp Fiction came out when I was at my peak of movie interest as a teen, and I loved it … And forgot about Travolta. I can quote Sam Jackson (who can’t?), I can see Uma dancing and even Tarantino “cleaning”, but man, Travolta escapes me. Weird.
Your comment is spot on, third ginger. I was going to try explaining it, but am so glad you did, as I couldn’t have done it as eloquently.
@Third Ginger is spot on. He was a huge deal. And yes there is a large percentage of the public that still buys the uber-straight ladies man persona. Yikes.
I have always been of the mind that outing should never be done by the press. We don’t know what a person is facing as far as their private life and mental state. However. When that courtesy (and it is a courtesy, there’s no law against the media outing someone if they have a legit story) is used to hide predatory behaviour and abuse (oh hey Kevin Spacey!) all bets are off. Publish the story.
The only part about Travolta’s love life was Diana Hyland his girlfriend when he became famous, and her death. She was older than him, but she still died young and it was very sad. Whether he was gay or bisexual, he was obviously very close and in love with her. I’ve always had a soft spot for him because of that, so his nasty gossip always makes me sad. Now I know this is going to be hard for some on here to understand, but this is kind of the way I feel about Roman Polanski with the death of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, from the Manson family. I was a toddler during the murders, but I remember all the stories and tv movies that came on in the 70’s and being dared by a few friends to watch them and being scared out of my wits for days. I felt really bad for Polanski, and have wondered about both of these men what their lives would be like if these women were still in their lives.
I remember hearing about how his girlfriend died in his arms. Diana played the mom in Eight is Enough as well.
look who’s talking is a classic! lol
Oh FFS, you’re right, he was in that too! 😀 I’ve apparently seen many of his films and can’t recall him at all. I’m starting to suspect my mind is deliberately trying to delete Travolta. Now, why is that?
Did anyone hear a rumour that John and Kelly had separated? Maybe she had enough? I did see a post on the news crawl on a local tv station but I have not heard anything since.
I am waiting for Harvey Levin(TMZ) and Steve Bannon to be exposed. Those two are so sleazy. They must have some skeletons rattling in their respective closets
Harvey should be next then followed by DailyMail owner.
Steve is devil and everyone knows this but some still support him. He will be hard to take down.
@Maya: who’s the Daily Mail owner? What’s the story on him – I assume it’s a him? DM is the most widely read website for news etc. I bet they won’t be publishing anything on that.
@Pumpkin: Daily Fail is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who uses it as a bully pulpit to spew his slanted views on everything, while waving Kim K and other celebs in your face to make you look. Rupert is probably a sleazebag of some sort or another, but he will be difficult to take down.
@tmot, thanks, I forgot about him.
Murdoch owns The Sun, not the DM. Still a sleaze ball.
I hear you but didn’t she have enough already? When is it that enough is enough? There are women married to high-profile abusers etc who let go of their marriage only when sh1t publicly hits the fan. I know that men like this can be controlling, manipulative and violent (at least emotionally) and it’s difficult to tell what the situation is really like in a marriage. But please. I don’t know what to think anymore.
Um, are you even familiar with the Preston-Travolta marriage?
@Bridget: right, they have a marriage just for the sake of their public image because he is gay and she is gay, as some people say? And the $cientology factor plays a role in their marriage too?
I would be amazed if she was gay. She’s super $ci. She’s the true believer of the two of them, and is a huge part of what keeps him in the “church”. Kelly has issues, and won’t talk about them (her boyfriend before Travolta? Charlie Sheen. Who ‘accidentally’ shot her). There’s a lot going on with these two.
Thanks Bridget. I had no idea **she** is the true believer. You mean the shooting was on purpose, not accidental, because in fact, something else/crazy was going on?
It’s CHARLIE SHEEN. I will never, ever believe the weird story that he dropped a gun in the bathroom and it somehow went off and shot her. Because it’s noted abuser Charlie Sheen. And I’ve long thought that was the event (and the relationship) that really drove Preston to $ci. That cult isn’t built on healthy people finding their brand of idiocy. But she is definitely, definitely the one of that couple that is super into $cientology. Travolta even reportedly was thinking about leaving after the death of their son. Then the stuff about the masseuses came out, and somehow all was good and Kelly was pregnant again. The rumor is that $ci has so much stuff on Travolta from his audit tapes that he’ll be destroyed if he ever leaves.
RBC: We hear those rumours frequently down here. To be fair though, they’re usually reported by Bauer Media, the company Rebel Wilson sued (and won) for printing lies about her. This year, among many other things, Bauer informed us about Duchess Kate’s pregnancy with twins, Princess Mary of Denmark’s fifth pregnancy, the Queen’s abdication any day now (that’s been happening since February), Brad Pitt and Kate Hudson’s engagement (they’re made for each other, dontcha know), and, oh, a whole lot of other shïte. Don’t judge. I’ve spent countless hours in medical waiting rooms this year. In any case, I couldn’t imagine living in a Travolta-Preston-type marriage (if that’s what it is) for more than five minutes.
There are going to be many more exposés before this is over.
Annakist, I’m not familiar with Bauer Media, but their story on Rebel Wilson was true, as far as I understand. They proved that she doesn’t have a difficult working class background, her name isn’t really Rebel Wilson, she isn’t in her twenties, etc. She’s a huge liar, and the only reason she won was because it was found the story was a hit piece and damaging to her career. Not because it was made up. Naturally, being said huge liar, she’s portrayed her win as proof that Bauer Media lied about her…
That TMZ Harvey guy is soooo creepy that I can’t bear to watch him. And Bannon, the scum of the earth. Not surprised they have a history of predatory behaviour.
I will believe that ONLY when they’re the ones telling us. Travolta and Preston are clearly a marriage for appearances – he was a safe harbor for her after her experience with Charlie Sheen, she was his beard to keep his “movie star” career. Not to mention, she’s the “true believer” when it comes to $ci and is the one that keeps him in line. He’s a big fish and the Church is never letting him go and by extension she’s never letting him go. BUT it is important to note that even if their relationship isn’t the typical romantic marriage, it’s pretty clear that they’re very close and it’s a partnership between the two of them.
They also have children together and that is an unbreakable bond. Plus all they went through with the child who died as a teenager – in addition to most likely autism, he apparently had drug-resistant epilepsy (or too many side effects, which requires a break), had a major seizure and I think hit his head. Tabloids dragged his parents, but I think they did what they could despite Co$. Drug-resistant epilepsy is a real heartache. A neighbor had little response to drugs, the best he ever got was a reduction in the grand mal seizures and the many petit mal seizures. His memory was so shot by the seizures and the drugs that he couldn’t recognize anything in their family photo collection. Conversations with him were a tad repetitive because he never remembered the last one. He died relatively young.
I don’t know if having kids is a unbreakable bond for them. They believe the only true bond and loyalty they have is to the cult and that children are just things.
I think it’s pretty clear that even though this isnt a traditional marriage that these two are pretty devoted to each other and their family. But I genuinely don’t think Kelly would choose John over the ‘Church’ should he ever choose to leave.
There were a lot of questions about their son Jett, and reportedly that was actually what had Travolta thinking about leaving. They supposedly had reatrictions on how they could treat his illness and what it really was, based on $ci’s teachings. Does Kelly still try to say that it was Kawasaki’s disease brought on by cleaning their carpets?
I was just wondering when is he going to be exposed. I’ve been hearing rumors about him for over a decade.
The times magazine released their person of the year and its the women who exposed the sexual harassment that was swept under the rugs for too long. I like the pick. I was also hoping Pasternak would have been the person just to drive the dotard over the cliff.
Very interesting! He’s not a big money maker or star anymore which makes him less appealing to Xenu. Hmmmm…
Although honestly from the history of this project it might just be boring business stuff. He and his wife and his daughter are starting? Something like 28 producers? A lot can go wrong. I mean, this was the one that was to be Lindsay Lohan’s big come back movie all those years ago. I mean…
Years ago at a photoshoot, some gal who worked at a prominent hotel in town told me he had been banned from the hotel for crappy behavior.
I saw an article on this on nymag and assumed it meant a Travolta expose was coming, but several commenters said it’s Kevin Connelly that is about to be exposed. Probably wrapped up with the accusations against Jeremy Piven? No idea if this is true, just wondered if anyone else has heard whispers about this.
Connelly was a part of Leo’s P*ssy Patrol. Maybe something coming out about that.
If Scientology can’t keep the lid on Travolta info for him, then maybe there is hope they will crumble after all.
That would be great. I can’t wait. There is this “I’ll get my popcorn ready” as in sitting back and enjoying entertainment. What would be a fun way to celebrate in a more dynamic, dramatic, fun way? One shot for X going down, two shots for Y going down, three for Z going down? How many shots for Cruise and the ‘big boss’, I can’t remember his name? The guy whose wife disappeared?
Miscavage. His wife Shelley surfaced briefly, but went back into hiding, and has not been heard from for quite a while now.
I’m here for this one…. watching Hollywood burn has been the highlight of 2017.
I was wondering when this would come up. He was banned from a few hotels in Toronto because of this behaviour so I’m interested to see how this turns out.
A relative who worked at a spa told me how they had to have a staff meeting about how to handle harassment because Travolta messed with or tried to mess with one of the young men who worked there.
From what I remember reading back when the masseuse accusations came out, is that Kelly is as deeply entrenched in that scientology crap as John. No way she’s leaving him or vice versa.
More so. He probably would have gotten out years ago if it weren’t for her and all the auditing tapes they have on him.
I think he became very disillusioned with the “religion” around the time his son passed away. There were rumors that he was going to leave. Then we got all those stories about how he was sexually harassing the help. He recommits and those stories miraculously disappear.
It’s sad all around.
Maybe people haven’t called him out yet because he’s been outed like crazy already. It’s one of the most poorly kept secrets out there.
A distribution deal typically includes language about how wide a film will be released and how much money will be spent on marketing and where it will be allocated. That’s standard. Why would you sign over your movie without knowing how or where it would be released? Either the producers are spectacularly dumb or this is (clearly) not the full story.
Shame. The trailer looked interesting and I would’ve checked out the film.
Expose his bald head while they are at it. Because his toupee is one of Hollywood’s worst kept shameful secrets too.
I do wonder about John Travolta. Because the guys that came after him were all really “bad victims”, in the sense that it was impossible to build an actual case with their statement. One first told the cop it had all been consensual, another gave a date for the assault in which Travolta was proven to be in a different place. I’m not necessarily saying they lied, but it’s important for these accusations to go beyond just a public shaming to have whatever evidence you can muster, and when your statement has so many holes, then all the other victims are put in question too. I’m actually surprised nothing new has come out of him recently, only old stuff.
Apparently, he also has a thing for exposing himself in front of young guys in the gym’s shower. Idk if its been brought up here but I saw it in some comments at reddit, the stories were quite similar as well.
Here’s the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2sfla8/comment/cnp6v2h
Can we still call it “exposed” when this has already come out and we all have all known and written articles about it since 2012?
Whatever the case, it’s kind of sad in a way that now whenever there’s an issue in Hollywood (movies being delayed, directors fired, contracts cancelled) everyone assumes there’s an exposé coming. I get it’s hard not to with John Travolta and Bryan Singer because there’s a previous history there, but imagine the paranoia and the hysteria that must be brewing inside the industry.
Apparently the film is garbage.
More interesting to me is the fact that Travolta dropped CAA last month. A few big names have done this recently, without going to another agency, which means they weren’t poached …. it’s curious.
This movie sounded terrible from the start. He is too tall to play John Gotti and his wife is in it?? Bleck. Can’t stand the husband,wife movie. They are beyond brainwashed by Scientology. I’m thinking, don’t release the movie at all.