Woody Allen Denies Ronan Farrow’s Sexual Assault Allegations At Cannes Film Festival
Woody Allen was scathed by his estranged son, Ronan Farrow, in a column for the Hollywood Reporter yesterday. Farrow wrote of his sister Dylan’s alleged sexual abuse, and he spoke of how “ashamed” he was of his own behavior when she broke the news in 2014, fearful that it would threaten his growing career as a media personality.
“My sister’s decision to step forward came shortly after I began work on a book and a television series. It was the last association I wanted. Initially, I begged my sister not to go public again and to avoid speaking to reporters about it. I’m ashamed of that, too. With sexual assault, anything’s easier than facing it in full, saying all of it, facing all of the consequences. Even now, I hesitated before agreeing to The Hollywood Reporter‘s invitation to write this piece, knowing it could trigger another round of character assassination against my sister, my mother or me.”
“I ultimately knew she was right,” Farrow added. “I believe my sister.”
He wrote of how Allen allegedly climbed into bed with her in the middle of the night and made her suck his thumb.
But today, Allen, 80, fired back and said there was nothing for him to say about Farrow’s Hollywood Reporter piece.
“I said everything I had to say about that whole issue in The New York Times,” Allen told Variety, referring to a rebuttal he wrote of his daughter’s allegations at the time. “I have moved so far past it. I never think about it. I work. I said I was never going to comment on it again. I said everything I have to say about it.”
When asked if he read Farrow’s piece, Allen said, “I never read anything.”
He then went on a lengthy tangent about not responding to critiques of his movies.
“But this isn’t a critic,” the Variety reporter responded. “It’s your son.”
Allen maintained that he still wouldn’t read it and concluded, “I’ve said all I have to say about it.”
Woody Allen on Son's Brutal Op-Ed: 'I Never Read Anything About Me': Woody Allen said he had not read a recen… https://t.co/77ymekRoWe
— Tizedit (@tizedit) May 12, 2016
This is what @RonanFarrow meant by Woody Allen's PR machine. I was banned from Cafe Society luncheon today. https://t.co/YR4aso7Gvh
— Tatiana Siegel (@TatianaSiegel27) May 12, 2016
Allen’s statement came after a controversial rape joke was told about Allen at the Cannes Film Festival, where his new movie, Cafe Society, was premiering.
“It’s very nice that you’ve been shooting so many movies in Europe, even if you are not being convicted for rape in the U.S.,” master of ceremonies Laurent Lafitte said, which stunned the audience.
#WoodyAllen dismisses sex abuse accusations as "silly" https://t.co/lZQBkdxKYU pic.twitter.com/9a46lWJtAe
— Page Six (@PageSix) May 12, 2016
Allen said he was not bothered by the statement, saying, “It would take a lot to offend me.”
This back-and-forth is but the latest in a notorious family history involving Woody Allen and his one-time relationship with actress Mia Farrow. The International Business Times chronicled Allen’s and Farrow’s “odd” family tree, which includes Allen’s apparent seduction of Soon-Yi Previn, the Chinese girl adopted by Farrow and her then-husband, Andre Previn, in 1978 — they were divorced a year later.
Allen and Farrow started dating in the early 1980s. They were a couple for over a decade, even having children together, even though they never married.
In 1992, it was reported that Allen began an affair with Soon-Yi, even though he is 35 years older than her. This revelation estranged Allen and Soon-Yi from Farrow and her other children. Allen married Soon-Yi Previn in 1997.
Ronan Farrow remains estranged from Allen.
“He’s my father married to my sister,” he told Xfinity in 2011. “That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression.”
In 2013, Mia Farrow suggested to Vanity Fair that Ronan may actually be the biological son of Frank Sinatra rather than Woody Allen.
What do you think of Woody Allen’s denial? Be sure to sound off in our comments section below.
[Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]
