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Last night was the Golden Globe awards, sort of the redheaded stepchild of awards ceremonies. And during the ceremony, Woody Allen was honored with the Cecil D. Mille lifetime achievement award, as well as airing a tribute to Allen and his work. This little award angered at least two people, and rightfully so — Allen’s ex-wife, Mia Farrow, and their son, Ronan Farrow. Mia Farrow responded to the tribute with tweets showing barely veiled disgust:
Time to grab some icecream & switch over to #GIRLS
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) January 13, 2014
Nite all
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) January 13, 2014
Ronan Farrow, however, came right out and said it:
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?
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 13, 2014
Likewise, this morning Mia Farrow didn’t mince her words at all.
A woman has publicly detailed Woody Allen's molestation of her at age 7. GoldenGlobe tribute showed contempt for her & all abuse survivors
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) January 13, 2014
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow’s relationship is notorious for how it ended — Farrow discovered that Allen was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Less well-known, however, is that another of Mia Farrow’s daughters, Dylan, accused Allen of molesting her in 1992. Dylan spoke out about the abuse in a recent Vanity Fair article:
Orth speaks to Farrow’s children, including Dylan, who now has another name and who discusses what she remembers about Allen and how his behavior has tormented her. She refuses ever to say his name. She calls her fears “crippling” and says, “I’m scared of him, his image.” Dylan tells Orth, “I have never been asked to testify. If I could talk to the seven-year-old Dylan, I would tell her to be brave, to testify.”
According to Dylan, “There’s a lot I don’t remember, but what happened in the attic I remember. I remember what I was wearing and what I wasn’t wearing.” She tells Orth, “The things making me uncomfortable were making me think I was a bad kid, because I didn’t want to do what my elder told me to do.” The attic, she says, pushed her over the edge. “I was cracking. I had to say something. I was seven. I was doing it because I was scared. I wanted it to stop.” For all she knew, she tells Orth, “this was how fathers treated their daughters. This was normal interaction, and I was not normal for feeling uncomfortable about it.” Woody Allen’s lawyer Elkan Abramowitz says that Allen still denies the allegations of sexual abuse.
Well, of course he denies the abuse. How many rapists, child molesters, or sexual abusers when confronted reply with, “Heck yeah I did it!”?
There’s more than just Dylan’s word to prove that Allen is a disgusting pedophile, too.
There was an unwritten rule in Mia Farrow’s house that Woody Allen was never supposed to be left alone with their seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan. Over the last two years, sources close to Farrow say, he has been discussing alleged “inappropriate” fatherly behavior toward Dylan in sessions with Dr. Susan Coates, a child psychologist. In more than two dozen interviews conducted for this article, most of them with individuals who are on intimate terms with the Mia Farrow household, Allen was described over and over as being completely obsessed with the bright little blonde girl. He could not seem to keep his hands off her. He would monopolize her totally, to the exclusion of her brothers and sisters, and spend hours whispering to her. She was fond of her daddy, but if she tried to go off and play, he would follow her from room to room, or he would sit and stare at her. During the school year, Allen would arrive early at Mia Farrow’s West Side Manhattan apartment, sit on Dylan’s bed and watch her wake up, and take her to school. At her birthday party last July, at Farrow’s country house in Bridgewater, Connecticut, he promised that he would keep away from the children’s table so that Dylan could enjoy her birthday party with her friends, but he seemed unable to do that. Allen, who was a fearful figure to many in the household, was so needy where Dylan was concerned that he hovered over her through the whole party, and when the cake arrived, he was right behind her, helping to blow out the candles.
Calling attention to someone’s birthday-party behavior may seem trivial at best. However, Dr. Coates, who just happened to be in Mia’s apartment to work with one of her other children, had only to witness a brief greeting between Woody and Dylan before she began a discussion with Mia that resulted in Woody’s agreeing to address the issue through counseling. At that point Coates didn’t know that, according to several sources, Woody, wearing just underwear, would take Dylan to bed with him and entwine his body around hers; or that he would have her suck his thumb; or that often when Dylan went over to his apartment he would head straight for the bedroom with her so that they could get into bed and play. He called Mia a “spoilsport” when she objected to what she referred to as “wooing.” Mia has told people that he said that her concerns were her own sickness, and that he was just being warm. For a long time, Mia backed down. Her love for Woody had always been mixed with fear. He could reduce her to a pulp when he gave vent to his temper, but she was also in awe of him, because he always presented himself as “a morally superior person.”
One summer day in Connecticut, when Dylan was four and Woody was applying suntan lotion to her nude body, he alarmed Mia’s mother, actress Maureen O’Sullivan, and sister Tisa Farrow when he began rubbing his finger in the crack between her buttocks. Mia grabbed the lotion out of his hand, and O’Sullivan asked, “How do you want to be remembered by your children?” “As a good father,” Woody answered. “Well, that’s interesting,” O’Sullivan replied. “It only lasted a few seconds, but it was definitely weird,” says Tisa Farrow.
… Several times last summer, while Woody was visiting in Connecticut, Dylan locked herself in the bathroom, refusing to come out for hours. Once, one of the baby-sitters had to use a coat hanger to pick the lock. Dylan often complained of stomachaches and headaches when Woody visited: she would have to lie down. When he left, the symptoms would disappear. At times Dylan became so withdrawn when her father was around that she would not speak normally, but would pretend to be an animal.
What kind of person could know about these allegations and not be disturbed? Molesting a seven-year-old aside, he also married his teenage stepdaughter just about as soon as she was old enough to legally be married. This was a child he helped to raise, and then married her when she was still a teenager. If that doesn’t scream that this man has a depraved, predatory mind, then what else could?
But of course, Allen’s strange proclivities towards his stepchildren, potentially including sexually abusing a child, don’t bother his admirers in Hollywood, who gave him an award and a fawning tribute, with actress Diane Keaton accepting the award on his behalf and gushing over how absolutely wonderful he is. Hot young actresses still line up to star in his films. It’s disgusting, but not altogether surprising. Consider Roman Polanski. Here is a monster, who allegedly drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl, including sodomizing her. Polanski escaped to Europe, where he has remained, fighting extradition to the United States to be held accountable for his crimes. But that doesn’t keep his admirers in Hollywood from demanding that the mean old United States justice system stop trying to extradite Polanski and just let him be. Why should any man be held accountable for raping a child, after all, when he’s an “artistic genius” like Polanski or Allen?
So conservatives are evil, but rapists and child abusers are people to be celebrated. That’s the Hollywood view of the world.
“So conservatives are evil, but rapists and child abusers are people to be celebrated. That’s the Hollywood view of the world.”
While I agree with that statement (Whoopie Goldberg’s infamous “It wasn’t ‘Rape, Rape'” statement is normative of Hollywood values), the accusations made against Woody Allen, including Dylan’s “memories”, are far from convincing. I have successfully both prosecuted and defended cases of rape, statutory rape, attempted rape, and various types of sexual abuse and assault. Parents and grand-parents seeking revenge (especially in nasty divorces), and therapists who believe in repressed memories, can be very skillful in planting false memories in young children. Also, when one or more of the adults meets the diagnostic critera for a Personality Disorder (which is essentially learned behavior, and so is passed along from parent to child), especially Borderline, Histrionic or Narcissistic PD, one needs to keep in mind that “The Truth” to such people is a very flexible concept based on whatever s/he wants at the moment. Such persons can tell lies better than most people tell the truth, and from moment to moment will believe whatever tale now told.
I cannot say that Woody Allen did not molest a 7-year-old Dylan in 1992, or before. However, child molesters seldom just stop. Pedophiles are serial, sexual predators of children, and there is no cure. There have been no further accusations by anyone (outside of Mia Farrow’s family) in over 20 years. Likewise, you cannot say that he did molest her. If he did, then he’s like a number of other perverts I sent off to room with guys nick-named “Big Richard.” However, before sending him off, let’s see credible evidence of guilt. In the cases I got acquitals (and the one I refused to prosecute and was dismissed), there were a lot of gut wrenching accusations and lurid stories — which did not stand up when thoroughly investigated. In the cases I got convictions, there were also thorough investigations. I don’t consider a Vanity Fair reporter a qualified, criminal investigator. Repeating salacious allegations without corroborating with independent evidence (especially physical evidence) is not a thorough investigation. As of now, Woody Allen is accused, but there isn’t probable cause to charge.
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