CLOONEY TO PRODUCE MOVIE BASED ON OHIO ST. SCANDAL
George Clooney is bringing the Ohio State sex abuse scandal to the small screen. The actor-director’s production company Smokehouse Pictures is teaming up with Sports Illustrated Studios and others on a docuseries based on SI executive editor and senior writer Jon Wertheim’s cover story that brought the story to a national audience last October.
“This article uncovers the most widespread sexual abuse scandal in the history of American higher education. It is a story about power, abuse, enabling and the hierarchy of college sports that had been concealed for far too long,”
said Wertheim in a press release. “Because these courageous men made the decision to remain silent
no longer, we can finally begin to hold the abuser, and those who were complicit in their silence, accountable
for their actions — and inactions. With the help of 101 Studios, Authentic Brands Group and Smokehouse Pictures, their voices and stories — harrowing as they are — will be amplified.”
Added Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov, “We’re very pleased to partner with 101 Studios and Sports Illustrated in bringing this devastating and tragic story to light.”
Dr. Richard Strauss worked at the university in various roles in both student health and athletics from 1978-1996. During that time, he was accused of assaulting more than 350 former athletes and other men.
One of them was former Ohio State wrestler Mark Coleman, who would go on to become the UFC’s first heavyweight champion in 1997.
“We never thought a man could sexually abuse a man,” Coleman told Sports Illustrated. “We just played it off. We joked about it. But I don’t think we were really joking.”
A report by the law firm Perkins & Coie, hired by OSU to look into the allegations in 2018, determined Strauss abused at least 177 male students between 1979 and his retirement in 1998, and that university personnel repeatedly failed to act. Lawsuits filed in the past two years, representing at least 360 plaintiffs, indicated that the number of victims was much higher. In many cases, complaints outlined claims about the doctor’s conduct and alleged school officials knew about Strauss’ abuse but failed to stop it.
Strauss retired in 1998. He later moved to California, where he died by suicide in 2005.
To date, Ohio State has announced settlements totaling $46.7 million among 185 plaintiffs who have alleged abuse by Strauss. But lawsuits representing hundreds of other plaintiffs remain pending.
It’s not yet known where or when the docuseries will air.