Mark Salling’s professional career is essentially over.
That’s what happens when you’re supposedly into child pornography.
A few days after Salling was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography (GROSS!), the actor was axed from the upcoming miniseries Gods and Secrets.
Not that he even needed to explain his decision, but director Adi Shankar issued a lengthy statement nonetheless.
Gods and Secrets will be moving forward without Mark Salling, he wrote. He has been cut from the mini-series, I will personally be paying for the reshoots, and I hope that Mark finds inner peace.
Furthermore, a percentage of profits from the project will go to a charity for abused children.
Pretty awesome, huh? Above and beyond for sure.
Back in December, Salling was arrested after police executed a search warrant and found endless images on his computer of underage children in various states of undress.
Salling is best known for his long-running role as Noah Puckerman on Glee.
Shankar continued:
Hopefully some good will come of all of this and I pray that when the dust has settled, the hyper-connectivity of the information age that has brought to light the transgressions of several public figures, will also force us to look within our society to identify and eliminate the root cause of the rape culture we exist in.
The innocence of our planet’s children is something that must be protected at all costs. As entertainers, our role is to be the ‘conscience of humanity,’ striving to make the world better for future generations.
Sadly, we live in a country where statistically at least one in five women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, 80,000 children are reportedly sexually abused every year, and at least one in six boys and one in four girls are sexually abused before the age of 18.
Child abuse is a cultural cancer whose tentacles penetrate far deeper than a single celebrity caught with illicit images on his computer, just as date rape is a is a far more prominent issue than the repeated transgressions of one mediocre entertainer from the 1970’s.
Child abuse is a democratic disease existing across socioeconomic lines affecting every walk of life. It affects all of us, and more importantly, its existence needs to cease to exist. Period.
It’s official: Adi Shankar is our new favorite director.
