1. The New York Daily News: Golden Globe Awards 2014: Ronan Farrow takes shot at Woody Allen tribute on Twitter
Woody Allen‘s Cecil B. DeMille lifetime-achievement tribute at the Golden Globes drew one big criticism — from his estranged son, Ronan Farrow.
“Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” Farrow posted on Twitter and Facebook.
2. At Tablet: Who Is Responsible for Dylan Farrow’s Pain?
Imagine if Mia Farrow had pressed charges and Allen had been convicted and gone to prison. Does anyone think, for one second, that he’d be the recipient of a Golden Globes lifetime achievement award?
And indeed, if anyone abrogated their civic duty, it was not the public. “That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” Farrow writes. “I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls.” She has one thing wrong here: *She* did not allow this; she was a child. But indeed, if we are to believe this story, her mother did—perhaps for entirely understandable reasons. But still: the person who, inadvertently or not, protected Allen from facing public judgment is the person who prevented him from ever being formally judged.
3. At Radar Online: The Secret Report From 1993 That EXONERATED Woody Allen: Doctors Told Cops That Dylan Farrow’s Sex Abuse Story Was ‘Fantasy-Like,’ Influenced By Mom Mia — Read It Here
“She told the story in a manner that was overly thoughtful and controlling. There was no spontaneity in her statement and a rehearsed quality was suggested in how she spoke.”
That was the bombshell finding medical professionals at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut delivered in 1993, concluding that iconic movie makerWoody Allen did NOT sexually abuse his adopted daughter Dylan, then seven, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.
Until now, the report — Connecticut law enforcement officials relied on it when deciding not to charge Allen with a crime — has remained a closely-guarded secret, available to those only involved in the police investigation.
4. New York Daily News: Dylan Farrow’s brother speaks out against mom Mia Farrow, defends Woody Allen: ‘Of course Woody did not molest my sister’
At least one voice from within the Farrow family is standing by Woody Allen — and against Mia Farrow — amid the controversy caused by Dylan Farrow’s renewed accusations of child molestation against the famed director.
Moses Farrow is accusing his mother Mia of “poisoning” her children against their father, according to a new interview he gave to People magazine about his sister Dylan Farrow’s recent open letter.
“My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister,” Moses Farrow, 36, told People.
“And I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt8YarlEcwI
5. At People: Dylan Farrow Speaks Out About Her Woody Allen Allegations – and the Backlash
In the end, Allen was never charged with molestation. In what was deemed a controversial move, then-Connecticut state’s attorney Frank S. Maco announced in 1993 that while he found “probable cause” to prosecute Allen, he was dropping the case because Dylan was too “fragile” to deal with a trial that would further “traumatize” her. Mia, 68, agreed with the decision, he said. But a panel of investigators from Yale-New Haven Hospital consulted during the investigation concluded that Dylan confused fantasy with reality and had not been abused.
Answering Her Critics
Dylan says she knew she would be taking on one of the most powerful and esteemed forces in Hollywood. Indeed, some of Allen’s defenders claim she wrote the letter – during awards season, no less – to sabotage her father, whose film Blue Jasmine is nominated for three Oscars. Others have said she wrote it to vindicate her mother. (Mia did not see the piece before it ran, a family friend says.)
“I’ve been hearing that a lot,” says Dylan. “I’m happy to answer that. My intention in writing that piece was to put the truth on paper from a voice that was not able to speak before.”
“People are saying that I am not actually remembering what I remember. People are saying that my ‘evil mother’ brainwashed me because they refuse to believe that my sick, evil father would ever molest me, because we live in this society where victim blaming and inexcusable behavior – this taboo against shaming the famous at the expense of their victims – is accepted and excused.”
6. At US Weekly: Lena Dunham Defends Dylan Farrow: “Most Victims Never Speak Up”
“To share in this way is courageous, powerful and generous. Please read,” the co-creator of HBO’s smash hit Girls tweeted Saturday, Feb. 1 along with a link to Farrow’s New York Times essay. “Grateful my timeline is full of so much love and respect for Dylan,” she later noted.
Since the letter was published, Allen’s camp has addressed the claims as “untrue” and “disgraceful.” The director’s lawyer Elkan Abramowitz told CNN on Monday that the controversy was “engineered by a vengeful lover,” in a dig at Mia Farrow. Abramowitz took his anti-Farrow crusade to the Today show Tuesday morning and called Farrow’s 28-year-old daughter “a pawn in a huge fight between [Allen] and Mia Farrow years ago.”
Dunham, 27, who was once the subject of an article titled, “Is Lena Dunham the Woody Allen of Her Generation?” returned to Farrow’s defense Monday evening: “In wake of Dylan’s letter I’ve noticed a lot of guys obsessed with the idea of being falsely accused,” tweeted the Emmy-winning actress. “As if you would just be walking down the street one day, get accused of assault or sexual misconduct, and suddenly life would derail … Though there have, of course, been plenty of terrible and unjust cases in the past, remember …” the feminist star continued.
*Updated* – Appreciations to several commenters for bringing to light this Vanity Fair piece. I’m also including a link to Allen’s new denial in the New York Times and an excerpt of the first three paragraphs.
7. New York Times: Woody Allen Speaks Out
TWENTY-ONE years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn’t give it a second thought. We were involved in a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a custody battle slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence seemed so obvious I didn’t even hire a lawyer to defend myself. It was my show business attorney who told me she was bringing the accusation to the police and I would need a criminal lawyer.
I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was. Common sense would prevail. After all, I was a 56-year-old man who had never before (or after) been accused of child molestation. I had been going out with Mia for 12 years and never in that time did she ever suggest to me anything resembling misconduct. Now, suddenly, when I had driven up to her house in Connecticut one afternoon to visit the kids for a few hours, when I would be on my raging adversary’s home turf, with half a dozen people present, when I was in the blissful early stages of a happy new relationship with the woman I’d go on to marry — that I would pick this moment in time to embark on a career as a child molester should seem to the most skeptical mind highly unlikely. The sheer illogic of such a crazy scenario seemed to me dispositive.
Notwithstanding, Mia insisted that I had abused Dylan and took her immediately to a doctor to be examined. Dylan told the doctor she had not been molested. Mia then took Dylan out for ice cream, and when she came back with her the child had changed her story. The police began their investigation; a possible indictment hung in the balance. I very willingly took a lie-detector test and of course passed because I had nothing to hide. I asked Mia to take one and she wouldn’t. Last week a woman named Stacey Nelkin, whom I had dated many years ago, came forward to the press to tell them that when Mia and I first had our custody battle 21 years ago, Mia had wanted her to testify that she had been underage when I was dating her, despite the fact this was untrue. Stacey refused. I include this anecdote so we all know what kind of character we are dealing with here. One can imagine in learning this why she wouldn’t take a lie-detector test.
8. Maureen Orth at Vanity Fair: 10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation
2. Allen had been in therapy for alleged inappropriate behavior toward Dylan with a child psychologist before the abuse allegation was presented to the authorities or made public. Mia Farrow had instructed her babysitters that Allen was never to be left alone with Dylan.
3. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police.Instead, he took one from someone hired by his legal team. The Connecticut state police refused to accept the test as evidence. The state attorney, Frank Maco, says that Mia was never asked to take a lie-detector test during the investigation.
4. Allen subsequently lost four exhaustive court battles—a lawsuit, a disciplinary charge against the prosecutor, and two appeals—and was made to pay more than $1 million in Mia’s legal fees. Judge Elliott Wilk, the presiding judge in Allen’s custody suit against Farrow, concluded that there is “no credible evidence to support Mr. Allen’s contention that Ms. Farrow coached Dylan or that Ms. Farrow acted upon a desire for revenge against him for seducing Soon-Yi.”
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image via NY Daily News
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