Springtime has brought with it yet another star-studded new Woody Allen film- and with it another fresh barrage of carefully timed accusations that Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child — and comparing the Oscar-winning director to fellow comedian Bill Cosby, who’s facing criminal charges of sexual assault.
Allen premieres his 47th film Cafe Society, starring Kristen Stewart, Steve Carrell and Blake Lively, at the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday night but the unveiling of his 47th film has been overshadowed by a blistering essay by his son Ronan Farrow in The Hollywood Reporter attacking his father and claiming the media is complicit in ignoring his alleged crimes.
Farrow, 27, is Allen’s biological son from his relationship with Mia Farrow. In 1992 Mia pressed charges that Allen molested Dylan who was then aged 7 shortly after discovering that Allen had begun a controversial relationship with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn who he subsequently married.
The case was dropped in 1993 although Allen was denied visitation with his daughter who has subsequently changed her name. His split with Mia over the scandal remains one of Hollywood’s most vicious separations — with recriminations and accusations playing out to this day.
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“I believe my sister,” Ronan writes. “This was always true as a brother who trusted her, and, even at 5 years old, was troubled by our father’s strange behavior around her: climbing into her bed in the middle of the night, forcing her to suck his thumb — behavior that had prompted him to enter into therapy focused on his inappropriate conduct with children prior to the allegations.”
As well as revisiting the sex abuse case, which was dropped in 1993, Ronan also accuses the media of failing to hold the director to account for his actions.
Ronan writes: “Being in the media as my sister’s story made headlines, and Woody Allen’s PR engine revved into action, gave me a window into just how potent the pressure can be to take the easy way out. Every day, colleagues at news organizations forwarded me the emails blasted out by Allen’s powerful publicist, who had years earlier orchestrated a robust publicity campaign to validate my father’s sexual relationship with another one of my siblings [Soon-Yi.].”
He is believed to be referring to Allen’s longstanding publicist Leslee Dart of PR company 42 West who most recently organized a cover interview with Allen for The Hollywood Reporter. When that cover came out, Ronan directed a snarky tweet at THR editor Janice Min:
Fast forward to Cannes on Wednesday, as Mia and her celebrity supporters lambasted reporters for not asking her ex about the abuse allegations during a press event for his new film:
Ronan Farrow takes the LA Times, the New York Times and even his own interview with Bill Cosby’s biographer to task for ‘compromising’. He accuses Allen of running a “self-perpetuating spin machine” and a “PR engine [that] revved into action.”
But that’s also not a bad description of Mia’s own strategy to to keep her persistent campaign against Allen in the spotlight. Even as Ronan publishes his carefully timed attack on his father, Mia is not far behind with supportive tweets and denunciations of her ex — never lessening her sense of injustice against her lover of 12 years.
A source who has worked with Ronan tells Heat Street that the Farrow family co-ordinates their operations in ways that are not always transparent. In 2014 Dylan Farrow repeated her allegations in an explosive open letter published in the New York Times on columnist Nicholas Kristof’s blog. Heat Street understands Dylan’s letter was in fact drafted by Ronan.
In his new THR essay, Ronan Farrow takes the Times to task for giving his father twice the space a week later in a subsequent op-ed article that ran in the print edition: “It was a stark reminder of how differently our press treats vulnerable accusers and powerful men who stand accused.”
Also in his newest piece, Ronan also hits out at the cast of Allen’s film for collaborating with him: “Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. ‘It’s not personal,’ one once told me.
“But it hurts my sister every time one of her heroes like Louis C.K., or a star her age, like Miley Cyrus, works with Woody Allen. Personal is exactly what it is — for my sister, and for women everywhere with allegations of sexual assault that have never been vindicated by a conviction.”
The Hollywood Reporter article is a return to the spotlight for Ronan, a society darling who’s largely disappeared from public view after his daytime show “Ronan Farrow Daily” was canceled by MSNBC in 2015 after only a year due to abysmal ratings.
The Hollywood Reporter article ends with a plug: “Farrow’s investigative reporting series, “Undercovered With Ronan Farrow,” airs on NBC’s ‘Today.’
After Farrow was dumped by MSNBC, he was reassigned to a reporting role for NBC News, reportedly taking a huge cut to what had been a rumored seven figure salary. But Farrow is far from a regular member of the Today family — unlike other Hollywood and political royalty like Billy and Jenna Bush and Maria Shriver. In fact, he has not been spotted on the morning program for two months. The last Undercovered segment, an investigation into the cost of SAT prep courses. ran on Today on March 11.
Ronan has found far more success staying in the public eye by re-airing his family’s dirty laundry.