Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is leaving his legions of left-wing Hollywood defenders hanging by refusing to address his Huston Huddleston problem.

Late last week, Gunn was fired by Disney after a countless number of his old tweets surfaced where the Marvel director “joked” about raping children, “ass raping” a female friend, AIDS, Mexicans, and the Holocaust.

After his firing (Gunn was reportedly writing the script for Guardians 3), left-wing Hollywood immediately rose to his defense, including Guardians star Dave Bautista, actress Selma Blair, and the 260,000-plus folks who signed a petition calling on Disney to reverse the decision on Gunn’s termination.

Guardians co-stars Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana have been a little more circumspect. Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, who voice Guardians characters Groot and Rocket, have said nothing as of this reporting.

As Gunn’s defenders (including the sanctimonious Never Trump) rage against Disney for allowing evil conservatives to take out Gunn over “old tweets” that merely contain “tasteless jokes,” there is an elephant in the room neither they, nor the corrupt entertainment media, nor James Gunn dare address … and that is Mr. Huston Huddleston.

According to the Wayback Machine, in September of 2010, on his personal blog (which he took down in an apparent panic Thursday night), James Gunn published a video he titled “100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves” with the following comment:

Huston Huddleston posted this video on my Facebook page with the note “I thought you’d appreciate this.” My response: “Appreciate it?!! I just came all over my own face!!”

Online sleuths claim the video is of a chorus of what looks to be high school-aged girls singing Divinyls’ ode to masturbation, ”I Touch Myself.”

It has been five days since Gunn’s name was publicly attached to Huddleston’s, and none of Gunn’s defenders are arguing different, so we have to assume this is the same Huston Huddleston who pleaded guilty this year to possession of child pornography, the same Huston Huddleston who is now a registered sex offender.

From what I can glean from various media reports, prior to his arrest, Huddleston was well-known as a collector in the same sci-fi circles a filmmaker like Gunn would have been part of at Troma Entertainment, a studio that produces low-budget exploitation films, primarily in the horror and sci-fi genres.

Apparently, Huddleston was putting together and raising money for a Hollywood museum dedicated to horror and science fiction when he was arrested in Los Angeles earlier this year for contacting a minor with intent to commit a felony, attempting to hire or coerce a minor to participate in child porn, and possession of “more than 600 images” of child porn.

While Huddleston was charged in 2018, authorities say the materials involving underage girls were given to the FBI by a source in September 2013.

Eventually, Huddleston pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography, was sentenced to time served (63 days), given three-years probation, and is now required to register as a sex offender.

Here is a photo of Gunn and this same Huddleston in June of 2014, the month prior to the release of Gunn’s first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which, like the sequel, he directed and co-wrote.

But this is not about a photo because this is not about guilt-by-association. No one should be held accountable for the actions of another. You can be friends with someone without knowing anything about their dark side.

What’s more, this is not even about “old tweets, or “tasteless jokes,” or even someone who finds it provocative to tweet about the joys of raping a child. Although Gunn is part of the mob looking to destroy the lives of others over words, people like Roseanne Barr and Laura Ingraham, on principle, Gunn’s defenders are correct: people should not lose their careers and reputations over old tweets, no matter how vile.

What this is about, though, is a 44-year-old Gunn sharing a video he received from a man later convicted of possessing child pornography; a video of girls or young women singing about masturbation, titling that video “100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves” and bragging about how that video brought you to orgasm.

Gunn can try to sweep this under the rug, his defenders can continue to try and make this about “cyber-Nazis,” but this disturbing connection involving disturbing behavior is out there and Gunn needs to address it, if only to give his defenders some cover.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.