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'Pee-wee' star insists he was innocent of porn charges

A scandal that temporarily put the brakes Paul Reubens’ career was based on unfounded allegations, according to the man behind late-80s kids’ comedy icon Pee-wee Herman.
/ Source: TODAY contributor

A scandal that temporarily put the brakes Paul Reubens’ career was based on unfounded allegations, according to the man behind late-80s kids’ comedy icon Pee-wee Herman. In an interview with Playboy magazine, Reubens recalled his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in an adult theater and insisted the authorities had it all wrong.

Although Reubens elected to avoid a drawn out trial — not to mention the steady stream of late-night TV jokes that would have likely come with it — by pleading “no contest,” he believed he had all the evidence required to prove his innocence at the time.

“Had we gone to trial, we had ready an expert from the Masters and Johnson Institute who was going to testify that in 30 years of research on masturbation, the institute had never found one person who masturbated with his or her nondominant hand,” Reubens revealed. “I’m right-handed, and the police report said I was (masturbating) with my left hand. That would have been the end of the case right there, proof it couldn’t have been me.”

After already enduring humiliating headlines and the publication of a memorable mug shot Reubens himself described as “Charles Manson-y,” the star decided to simply lie low and get help for the shock he suffered as a result of the incident — an experience he claimed ultimately saved his life “when scandal number two happened,” a 2002 arrest for possession of child pornography.

"The police had been given a false tip in an alleged sting operation and came to my house,” Reubens explained. “They thought the wrong thing, and they were there for the wrong reason, and when that became clear, they should have left. Or they should have taken all my computers like they did but spent three minutes looking through them and realized they were wrong. … The state eventually realized I had nothing offensive, but the city attorney decided to put me through three years of hell anyway.”

Despite all that’s happened since, Reubens, who recently resurrected his Pee-wee character for a successful string of stage shows and an upcoming movie, knows he’ll never be completely free from the scandals.

“At the time people said, ‘The public has such a short memory,’ ” he said. “I knew it wasn’t true. The public has a memory like a steel trap. In some people’s minds I somehow retain this reputation of being a pervert. When you look me up on almost any website — IMDb or Wikipedia or anything — that insane allegation of child pornography is on there. Much as I like to pretend it’s not there or imagine most people know nothing about that one, it’s there. It’s always going to be a footnote. But you know what? At this point the footnote is neither here nor there for me. It has no effect on me. I’m cool with it.”

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Tabloid Tidbits is compiled by Ree Hines. Follow on Twitter to gab about the latest gossip.