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“I literally was famous before I knew my own name,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ “Nightline.”

The ad led to roles in films such as “Stand By Me,” “Goonies” and “License to Drive.” He was a household name before he could read.

“I knew … to respond to Corey, but I didn’t know how to write it; I didn’t know how to spell it,” he said.

But being famous and underage, he said, caused serious damage to him and his friends, including loss of innocence and a lost childhood.

Feldman blamed the adults around him, not just those looking to profit from charming children, but also some with far more sinister motives.

“I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia. That’s the biggest problem for children in this industry. … It’s the big secret,” Feldman said.

The “casting couch,” which is the old Hollywood reference to actors being expected to offer sex for roles, applied to children, Feldman said. “Oh, yeah. Not in the same way. It’s all done under the radar,” he said.

Tatsuhiko Kodama, 58, who heads the Radioisotope Center at Todai, was called to provide expert testimony before the Lower House Health, Labor and Welfare Committee on July 27.

Facing a panel of lawmakers, Kodama said, “At a time when 70,000 people have left their homes and have no idea where to go, what is the Diet doing?”

Video footage of Kodama’s testimony was soon posted on YouTube, and within a few days, the video had been viewed more than 200,000 times.

Responses to the footage were generally favorable.

“I was deeply moved that Todai has a professor like him,” said one post.

“I understand the scary truth. I understand the inaction of the central government,” said another.

Besides being a doctor of internal medicine, Kodama is also an expert on internal radiation exposure. His background made even more shocking the testimony he provided in the Diet.

“(On March 21), Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, ‘There are no immediate problems for people’s health.’ At that time, I felt something very disastrous was about to occur,” Kodama said. “When we look at problems from radiation, we consider the total exposure amount. Neither Tokyo Electric Power Co. nor the central government have made any clear report about total exposure from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.”

The Radioisotope Center conducted its own calculations on the level of radiation contamination arising from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

“The equivalent of 29.6 times of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or in terms of uranium about 20 atomic bombs, were released by the accident,” Kodama said. “While the remaining radiation from atomic bombs decreases to one-thousandth of the original level after a year, radioactive materials from the nuclear power plant only decrease to one-tenth the original level.”

After the nuclear accident, Kodama visited Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, on seven separate occasions to help decontaminate the area of radiation.

“What I am doing right now is totally illegal,” Kodama said. “Under the present law to prevent problems arising (from radiation), the amount of radiation and the type of nuclide that can be handled by each facility is determined. While I am providing support in Minami-Soma, most of the facilities do not have the authority to handle cesium. Transporting the materials by car is also illegal.

“However, we cannot leave materials with high levels of radiation to the mothers in the community. In the decontamination process, we place all materials into barrels and bring them back to Tokyo,” he said.

Kodama also strongly called for a new law that would help reduce radiation exposure among children as soon as possible.

The two-day clinic at First Baptist Church of Woodstock on Hwy. 92 is being sponsored by the Georgia Dental Association and its Foundation for Oral Health.

A statement posted on the transit agency’s website said the communications blackout was ordered in the interest of public safety:

“Organizers planning to disrupt BART service on August 11, 2011 stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police,” the statement reads.

“A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees and demonstrators. BART temporarily interrupted service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform.”

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment slumped to 54.9 from 63.7 the prior month. The gauge was projected to decline to 62, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.

The biggest one-week slump in stocks since 2008 and the threat of default on the nation’s debt may have exacerbated consumers’ concerns as unemployment hovers above 9 percent and companies are hesitant to hire. Rising pessimism poses a risk household spending will cool further, hindering a recovery that Federal Reserve policy makers said this week was already advancing “considerably slower” than projected.

Merkel will travel next Tuesday to Paris for the meeting aimed at producing “joint proposals” by September on how to better manage the euro and avoid future instability, Sarkozy’s office said.

The announcement came as financial markets were again in turmoil on concerns that the US and eurozone debt crisis may spark a new recession and after rumours of a France credit rating downgrade and fears over Greek debt exposure.

Markets are wondering whether France and Germany — the eurozone’s two biggest economies — can continue to underwrite other states’ debts without losing their top credit ratings and falling victim to the crisis themselves.

­Investors however remain unconvinced the country’s finances are solid enough. Problems in the Eurozone will be up for discussion by the French and German leaders next week.

Max Keiser, financial analyst and host of the Keiser Report on RT, said French banks are now loaded with toxic derivatives that were sold to them by US investment banks.