It’s been one heck of a year for Hollywood. Harvey Weintstein (thanks to Ronan Farrow) set off a shocking chain of events surrounding Hollywood sexual predators. His epic crash and burn lifted the lid on even seedier and more disturbing behavior in Hollywood. Accusations of long-ignored pedophilia have begun to bubble to the surface as the documentary on the horrifying culture of pedophilia in Hollywood – An Open Secret – began to gain traction after two years of virtual blacklisting, and publications like Redstate brought to light long-simmering pedophilia scandals at Nickelodeon.

For years rumors about the deviant behavior of X-Men director and Fox favorite Bryan Singer have been floating around Tinsel Town and the internet. Singer has been repeatedly accused of plying underage boys with drugs and alcohol and molesting them or coercing them into sex.

It might be prudent to note at this point that Singer is close friends with three of the accused producer pedophiles featured in An Open Secret. All three men fled the country years ago and are rarely seen in public.

Nothing has (obviously) ever come of the allegations. Some accusers suddenly dropped their lawsuits, probably accepting some type of payoff. Others were simply shamed and blacklisted. As we’ve come to see, protecting Singer’s income stream reputation was more important than protecting any possible victim.

Just as a slough of Hollywood legends are being cut down  by allegation after allegation, news comes of Singer’s firing from his latest project and the subsequent banishment of his production offices from Fox studios.

On Monday, Fox cited Singer’s repeated absences and personality conflicts as the reason he was let go from the Queenbiopic  Bohemian Rhapsody.

Singer’s firing came after tension on the movie’s London set came to a boil over his unprofessional behavior.. His tardiness and frequent no-shows resulted in heated confrontations with star Rami Malek, who is portraying Queen’s Freddie Mercury. Because of complaints to the studio, reps from the Directors Guild of America and Fox visited the London set to monitor the situation.

After what appeared to have been a reconciliation between the director and actor, Singer then pulled another disappearing act and did not return to the set after the Thanksgiving break. For the studio, which had already dealt with similar behavior on Singer’s part during the making of 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, that was the final straw.

Singer responded by claiming he was absent due to family health issues.

“I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen,” he said in a statement, “but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.”

The Hollywood Reporter goes on to say that Singer was missing for a whopping 10 days after Thanksgiving break, which seemed to be the final straw. Fox cleaned out his production offices and did not renew their partnership contract as expected.

Singer had been warned before production began by both Fox Film chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and Fox Film vice chairman and president of production Emma Watts that they wouldn’t tolerate any unprofessional behavior on his part. A representative from the Directors Guild of America also arrived on set to monitor the situation.

The growing tension led to a confrontation between Singer and Malek, which, while it did not become physical, did involve Singer throwing an object. Subsequently, however, the two are said to have settled their differences and filming was expected to resume.

But then Singer did not return to the set after the Thanksgiving break and is believed to have been in the U.S. for about the last 10 days, according to one source. In his absence, Sigel stepped in to helm several days of shooting before the production was shut down. Singer’s prolonged absence was the final straw, and so the studio decided to terminate him under his pay-or-play contract.

There is no doubt that Singer has been irresponsible with his time in the past and perhaps Fox really is just tired of his shenanigans. However, a simple internet search will turn up claims of Singer’s predatory behavior towards young boys even back to his film adaptation of Stephen King’s  Apt Pupil. Entertainment Weekly magazine did an expose on the accusations all the way back in 1997.

Fox may want us to believe they’re just tired of his antics but the Hollywood elite need to stop thinking of their consumer base as complete idiots. We know the writing is on the wall and they’re just trying to get out of the way of the ensuing fallout. Per usual, “We didn’t know nuthin'” is the first and last line in the defense of the indefensible.