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A known womanizer -- and the sort which preyed upon young women -- Woods (age 40) was making The Boost with Young (age 28) in 1988. Woods was then recently divorced yet engaged to horse trainer Sarah Owen (age 24), who would, that year, accuse Woods of both verbal and physical abuse.

According to NNDB:

In 1987, she accused him of verbal and physical abuse, including pointing a gun at her and ordering her to strip, lie on the floor, and say, "I am a whore, I am a baby killer." Two years later they were married, for barely four months. During their messy divorce, she told the tabloids Woods was addicted to pornography, had forced her to have an abortion, and that she had caught him masturbating outside her mother's bedroom.

Naturally, Woods refers to her as "The Anti-Christ".

It was during this time that Woods put the moves on Young. Young has always maintained that she rejected him, including in this recent EW interview:

She had a boyfriend at the time, he had a girlfriend, and she says their sexual tension just wasn't worth the trouble. "I was like, 'Jimmy, look, these are normal feelings, if we feel this way in six months, we'll revisit the concept,'" she says. "It was a crush being turned down, that's all.... So sue me! And he did."

Woods had also denied any romantic or sexual relationship with Young -- but then he'd have to. For in 1988 he and Owen, his then fiancée, filed a $2 million suit for harassment against Young. The allegations included that Young left a doll, its "neck was slashed, iodine stained its chest and its face had been smeared with white, corpse-like make-up", on his doorstep -- and trampled the couple's expensive flower bed.

Young denied the charges and fought back in court.

This may sound familiar to you; but what's absent in most nearly every telling is that the case was settled out of court in 1989 -- and that Young was awarded a $277,000 settlement. She was not found guilty but rather awarded over a quarter-million dollars. In fact, it would seem that Woods himself had something to hide here.

Woods and Owen would go on to marry -- a marriage which would only last four months. And it is during this time that Woods employs the notorious Anthony Pellicano, strong-arm PI to the stars. In some accounts, Pellicano is mentioned regarding the suit against Young, at other times against Owen in the divorce; but either way, it smells of crap.

Woods continues to blame Young -- it's part of his anger & control problem, which only cements Owen's claims for me.

For example, take a look at this 1989 interview in the New York Times. After boasting how he'd threatened his classmates with pouring acid on their faces, the interview continues with this:

"I want to send a clear and unequivocal message to people," he says at one point. "I can be an asset in anyone's life, should they choose to have me be so. But if you're going to mess with someone, find someone else to mess with because if you mess with me you'll be doing it for the rest of your life. I don't ever try to hurt anybody. But if anybody tries to hurt me, they better be willing to do it until the day they die, because I will never forget.

This speech, which he delivers as his answer to an innocuous question about why he fought his high school board to have a grade changed from a C to an A, has clear enough implications in the Sean Young case. It doesn't seem the best time to ask him about a published report that he once threatened Sarah Owen with a gun. (This item, an aside in a cover story on Sean Young in Premiere, stated that Owen went to the Los Angeles police with the charge, then dropped it.) Asked about the incident, Woods turns off the tape recorder. He talks angrily about the irresponsibility of the press. Neither confirming nor denying the report, he says he hasn't read the articles, and he talks about libel suits. Then he recovers his poise and turns the machine back on. "I don't want this to be a circus," he says. "I just want this person to leave us alone. Stay on your side of the planet and make up for the year-and-a-half of misery we went through in some appropriate way, and that's that."

OK, so that was 1989 -- the case was still pending; what's that prove? Well, how about Woods' reaction the recent EW article?

In a 1992 EW cover story on Young, Woods sounded a note of contrition when he said that "I love and admire Sean," and elsewhere he has been quoted as saying "Maybe she'll say it's time to bury the hatchet. I can only be a gentleman and say I hope for the best." But when approached again for this piece, he struck back at the actress in four angry and raw e-mails sent to EW over the course of 12 hours, cc'd to his lawyer and publicist. He wrote, among other things, that the actress perpetrated a "jihad of terror" against him and his now ex-wife, that this all "was certainly not about spurned advances, as they were most assuredly not spurned," and that "I am sure it is fashionable to bash the guy (yawn) and pity the poor woman." (He also stressed that a highly publicized urban legend, wherein Young superglued his penis to his leg, was entirely false and if the magazine suggested otherwise he'd take EW to court. The actress also denies the incident.) His lawyer quickly followed up Woods' eruption with an e-mail saying the messages had been accidentally sent, and insisted EW only quote his client using the following statement: "These incidents took place over 20 years ago, and I have moved on and would suggest Ms. Young do the same."

Yeah, so he blames her, he blames her not... And can he make up his mind about whether or not he made advances, let alone if they were spurned or not?

And I'd say that it seems Woods medication needs to be adjusted, at least to the point where he can control his email abilities (as if 'accidentally sent' somehow absolves him of what he wrote), but that would imply two things I don't accept... One, that taking medication is a sign that he is treating a problem and therefore accepts he has a problem (I most assuredly do not think Woods believes he has any such problems), and two, that there is medication for what ails Woods (men with anger and control issues like this need therapy -- years of therapy).

But what really, really pisses me off is his 'accidental,' "I am sure it is fashionable to bash the guy (yawn) and pity the poor woman."

The parenthetical yawn typifies his snideness -- an insidious snideness reserved for the anger-filled, controlling, abusive male. From his vantage point of 'powerful man' he pulls the strings, protesting his boredom with any perception that he has any responsibilities for the real bashings involved here. But in truth, he is not bored; he is incensed. How dare she get away from him; how dare she 'win' in court. He must still control her...

Ah, but then he remembers his position and uses it; he must still make sure she has no career. So pull the strings, call the lawyer.

Woods is a male that some call an 'actor'. But I say playing creeps, notorious bastards, scumbags, power-mad men, & cold-blooded sickos isn't acting when that's what you are.

So here's Young, bad-mouthed, black-balled, reputation ruined. She fights for what should be hers. She swaggers in to fight for the role of Catwoman -- a move which would would be applauded had it been carried out by any ballsy man. But, as Young says, "she was a woman — a strong, mouthy, opinionated one", and so it wasn't acceptable. Read this account by Michael Keaton from the July 1992 issue of Playboy and tell me if it would have been acceptable had a man done this. (Of course, you're going to have to read past the snide male bullshit here too.)

Keaton: Oh, boy, talk about really knowing you're in Hollywood. One day after Annette was out of the running, I was talking to Mark Canton, who was then in charge at Warner Bros. and heading up the Batman project. We were in his office and he said, "I'm getting calls about Catwoman from every actress you can name." He began going down the list for me when his phone rang. He picked it up and said, "Yes, fine, but no, I can't right now. I'm busy." Just as we started talking again, there was another phone call. "Please do me a favor," he said. "Tell her I can't see her now. I'm in a meeting." About thirty seconds later, the door flew open and in walked Sean Young, who was a woman on a mission- but on a level the likes of which I'd never seen before.

Playboy: What did she do?

Keaton: Sean came in and said, "How could I not be Catwoman? It's so obvious that I'm supposed to be Catwoman." It was so strange and bizarre. Sean was dressed catlike. No actual fur was involved, but I recall her hair being tied up with a ribbon that kind of picked her hair up. At a fast glance, it looked like she had ears on the back of her head. She was dressed in all black- big high boots, leotard and shorts.

Playboy: And she made her pitch for the role right then?

Keaton: Yeah, on the move. She went on for about two and a half minutes with what seemed like one sentence. It was a lot like Bob Dylan's book "Tarantula." While Sean was talking, I noticed that she had a metallic object in her hand. I flashed on it for a second and prayed to God it wasn't a gun. I wasn't alone in that- Mark had the same feeling. But it wasn't a gun, it was a walkie-talkie. I thought I would diffuse the situation by bringing her back to earth. I said, "Hey, first of all, how you doing? I haven't seen you for a long time, and you look great"- which was true. That threw her for a couple seconds, and then she went on again. I asked her what she was doing with the walkie-talkie. She said- nicely, she wasn't mean- "I'm talking to somebody." The walkie-talkie was crackling, and I heard things like "Roger." I said, "Why don't you shut if off? Let's have a conversation." And I think she did shut it off. For a moment, I felt that might straighten her up. I said, "Hey, do me a favor. I'm talking to Mark about something. Let me finish up here- we're just about done- and then I'll leave and you guys can have your meeting." Sean talked for another minute and then went out and waited. I left and she came back in and talked with Mark. I don't know what happened after that. But it was wild and totally eccentric and great fun. I'll tell you something: If the woman could bottle that drive with a sense of humor, she'd be unstoppable.

Playboy: Is the sense of humor missing?

Keaton: For the most part, yes.

And, from The Modern Amazons: Warrior Women Onscreen, by Dominique Mainon and James Ursini:

Sean Young (who had been slated to play Vicki Vale in the first Batman but had to withdraw due to an injury) is said to have gone as far as showing up at the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman costume with an entourage of assistants carrying walkie-talkies to track down Tim Burton. According to Marion Doughter, the casting director at the time, Burton hid in the bathroom.

(Found via Snopes.)

It doesn't seem odd to me that any actress who'd had bad breaks (not just dealings with Woods, but a literal break in her arm which pulled her out of the first Batman film) would push so hard. And Keaton's reaction only seems to make sense if he'd believed the BS spread by Woods.

How anyone can lament Young's continued upset over the devastating effects of Woods on her career is astonishing. Labeled a nut-case, a phsyco; black-balled from acting with the brand of "bitch" when she was the victim; what is she supposed to do? Just say, "Hey, that's OK. Lie and treat me like crap and keep me from my career, all because of your twisted ego"?

Not.

So here we are in 2008 and Young's still trying. She's been booted from the A-list parties, and now she's apparently got a drinking problem for which she was booted for heckling at the Directors Guild of America Awards -- at least that's the story being sold by all the entertainment and gossip rags.

I don't think drinking is the answer; but I can understand the impulse. Hell, Woods is pretty damn near driving me to drink (self-medicate) and I'm only reading about it. Sure, it hits nerves with my own past abusive marriage; but Woods' abuse of Young (and others) upset me before any of that happened too. Reading it all misreported and Woods-distorted again after my own personal experiences just disappoints & upsets me again.

And why shouldn't it? Doesn't it upset you?

Sean Young's got a website, and there you'll find contact information should you like to give her a shout-out of support.

Me? I'll be offering her the role of a lifetime. She's got an open invitation to play me in the movie version of my autobiography. All I have to do is write it. So take your time getting well, Sean; I'll be here when you're ready.

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