Fox cuts 'Predator' scene after learning actor is a sex offender

Twentieth Century Fox cut a scene from The Predator after learning that one of the actors in it, a friend of director Shane Black, was a registered sex offender.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Steven Wilder Striegel pleaded guilty in 2010 to an online relationship with a minor, something of which Black was aware when he hired him.

Striegel described the minor to the Times as one of his "distant relatives" whom he grew close with over email. The emails grew explicit, and the 2009 arrest alleged multiple instances of physical contact, though Striegel still denies this.

By then, Striegel and Black had been friends for several years. Since the conviction, Black employed Striegel on Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys with plans to produce one of Striegel's films in the future. He was aware of Striegel's conviction, but Twentieth Century Fox was not.

“I personally chose to help a friend,” Black said in a statement to the Times. “I can understand others might disapprove, as his conviction was on a sensitive charge and not to be taken lightly.”

In The Predator, Striegel's character reportedly hits on Casey (Olivia Munn) in an approximately three-page scene. When Munn learned of Striegel's conviction, she urged Fox to cut his scene, and told the Times that it was "both surprising and unsettling" that Black did not disclose his friend's background with the film's team.

Hiring Striegel was entirely legal on Black's part, but a risk in the era of #MeToo and Time's Up. Registered sex offenders can struggle to find employment, but Hollywood is under fire for having harbored serial abusers and harassers in safety and silence for decades. On the flip side, people like James Gunn are getting fired over old tweets – and Striegel claims he's only guilty of writing "words in an email," but these days that is enough to lose a multi-million dollar movie, much less a single scene.

Even if Striegel was "caught up in a bad situation," as Black says, his employment and defense are difficult for the director to justify in this climate.

The Predator is on track to release Sept. 14.