The country seems obsessed by the recently revived battle between Woody Allen and his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow over allegations he molested her twenty-one years ago when she was seven years old. Both camps and their defenders have been flaming each other in the press since this article appeared in Vanity Fair last October.
I remember reading about the abuse charge when it happened but the details had faded. That’s why I was amazed how quickly people took sides: Team Woody versus Team Dylan. The attacks and counter attacks are coming too fast and furious for me to process, but here are a few highlights:
- January 12, 2014: Woody Allen won the Golden Globe for lifetime achievement.
- January 27, 2014: Robert B. Weide wrote this article in support of Woody Allen following renewal of the allegations in October 2013.
- February 1, 2014: Dylan’s open letter in Nicolas Kristof’s New York Times blog, in which she blasts Hollywood in general and Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin in particular for appearing in Allen's Blue Jasmine.
- February 2, 2014: Ronan Farrow and Mia Farrow tweeted in support of Dylan.
- February 7, 2014: Allen denies the allegations.
- February 7, 2014: Maureen Orth of Vanity Fair speaks out in support of Dylan.
- February 8, 2014: Rebuttal of Allen's denial by Dylan Farrow and the full text here.
- Why did Dylan choose to tell her story in the New York Times and why now? I read that she has a book in the works but I could find no evidence that that's true. I hope it isn’t true. If so, it makes her motives murkier. Some people speculate that she’s seeking her fifteen minutes of fame or helping launch Ronan’s career in broadcasting. I dismiss both of those claims as implausible. She says she wanted to tell her story in a voice that had been silenced for so many years, but she also allegedly said that her mother's bombshell revelation that Ronan's biological father could be Frank Sinatra and not Woody Allen overshadowed her story and made her feel as if nobody cared.
- Did Dylan warn her siblings before igniting this firestorm? There are deeply personal details in the court custody papers released that could prove damaging, if not to careers, at least to psyches. Some sources report that Mia did not know beforehand that Dylan planned to publish her letter.
- It’s been reported that the prosecutor had “probable cause” to file child sexual abuse charges against Allen but chose not to because Dylan was too fragile to testify, and he knew he couldn’t win the case without her testimony. Did he make that decision on his own or was Mia involved?
- Why did Dylan call out Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin in her NYT piece? Was she trying to damage Blanchet’s Oscar chances as well as Allen’s? If so, that would be a damn shame.
- What does Dylan hope to gain? Does she feel that this trial in the court of public opinion twenty-one years after the fact is for the greater good or does she have some other reason?
After reading various accounts, I’m leaning toward an opinion about what happened. I'm also remembering the McMartin sexual abuse trial in which children were coached to report fabricated acts of molestation. Until I’m sitting in a jury box, listening to all the evidence, I can't make an informed decision. Right now there’s only one thing I’m fairly sure about. What do you think?
 | |||
| Woody, Frank, Ronan |
from Jacqueline: But can Ronan belt out "New York, New York" with a certain gusto? He looks very much like him mother when she was in her early twenties - and as a child he was quite like Mr. Allen. Ronan Farrow could solve the whole thing pretty quickly with a DNA test, which I suspect has already been done and might even prove that Mr. Allen is his father - but that wouldn't allow for some serious publicity while people ponder the issue. "There's none so strange as folk," as the saying goes.
ReplyDeleteThe true test will be in a karaoke bar.
DeleteThe current flap actually started allegation with Ronan Farrow tweeting about the allegations when Woody Allen received the lifetime achievement award. Dylan did not enter the fray until later.
ReplyDeleteThe October 2013 Vanity Fair article was what stirred the pot, but most people (including me) weren't aware that the issue was back in the news until those tweets.
DeleteWoody Allen's denial is well-reasoned, logical, and carries the day with me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've learned from reading about this drama is that my family is looking more and more normal.
DeleteMcMartin certainly came to my mind, and there has been a great deal of research into the extent to which memory is influenced/corrupted by present experience to the extent that we need to be very careful with respect to the degree to which the judicial system relies on witnesses as objective truth.
ReplyDeleteI think I have enlisted enough prepositions for now....
And you know I would never question your prepositions.
DeleteTeam Dylan. I understand that likely we will never know, there will not be a resolution in a court of law. I find Maureen Orth's posting of indisputable facts of the case compelling.
ReplyDeleteI find Allen's letter not credible and odd.
Disclaimer: I grew up in the next town and knew of the case at the time. The folks I know who know the family (including Soon Y's godmother) were convinced, then and now, that Dylan was abused. As many of you cite the McMartin case , and the Amidon case in Massachusetts, I'm cognizant of many more cases where the kids were not believed or were silenced and shunted off. Penn State, most recently. Allen's lie detector examination wasn't conducted by the authorities, Dylan was never seen, examined or interviewed by the Yale people who nevertheless issued an opinion. What does Dylan have to gain? I believe her.
I agree it's suspicious that the Yale people gave an opinion about Dylan without interviewing her. We are told they destroyed all of their original records, leaving us to believe it was a cover-up. You are allowed to destroy medical records after a certain time has passed. It's been 21 years. When did they destroy them? We should be told this.
DeleteThere is so much we don't know. I guess that's why we all read crime fiction. At the end, we know all the answers.
Dylan's response in Hollywood Reporter and the Vanity Fair piece say it all for me. Allen is clearly guilty, and I'm sorry his fans can't face that. If you want to talk timing, why did Moses (a family counsellor? Wasn't he a photographer in the first account?) never say anything before now? Wouldn't he have protected his younger siblings by coming out?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't see the McMartin trial as at all similar. It was a kind of group mentality for one, which is different psychologically from individual claims of molestation. Some children recanted their stories, but Dylan never has - the one I suspect is Moses, who has done a complete 180 and comes off as shady. Maybe he wants a film career - he's clearly a better photographer than he is at helping families. And if Mia were abusing her kids - a claim that NEVER came up until Dylan told the truth about her own abuse - why were they never taken away from her? Why didn't he and Soon-Yi fight to get the other kids out of there?
I'm tired of the victim not being believed. This is typical in molestation cases - most molesters tell their victims "nobody will believe you" - and brainwashing, while it does happen, is relatively rare and often short-lived, particularly when committed by an individual rather than, say, a cult or ad/PR agency.
Dylan's rebuttal of Allen uses points that are on public record. Allen's letter is full of lies and half truths - he passed the polygraph he BOUGHT, and refused the police one; Mia didn't refuse to take one, she was never asked to. He WAS in that attic, his hair was found there, and he changed his story about that, and has now gone back to the original lie. He is as guilty as sin, and only his diehard fans still believe him.
His fingerprints were found in the attic, as well.
DeleteDylan is lying, End-of-story. Next?
ReplyDeleteMost child abusers are repeat offenders. It's interesting that there have been no further claims, at least that we know of.
Delete