An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow

[MsDark]

That's just one of a number of pictures of Woody with the whole brood, including Soon Yi. So this was maaaaybe 3-4 years before he started fucking her then?

Or at least before everyone knew about it. She looks a hell of a lot like a daughter here, don't you think?

[MohandasKGanja]

[/COLOR]

Again, what else would she say? It's twenty years removed from the event and it's impossible to know what her memories really were from that time vs. what things she was told later vs. what she reveals to the press vs. if she wants to now to do, as an adult, to consciously protect Mia. It hardly puts Mia outside of the possibility of implanting a memory, because part of that manipulation is also in making the adult who is doing it blameless.

Her story now is the same as it was when she was interviewed as a child. Once again, she said that Mia had a moment of doubt and told her she could take it back, but Dylan said she couldn't because it was the truth. In all the stories I've read about someone implanting a memory of abuse in a child, I've never heard of one where the implanting adult also implants a plausible denial for themselves. If you could cite an example where that happened, it would be good to take a look at.

[witchcurlgirl]

Saw something odd this morning. A taped interview with Mia and Rosanna Scotto, who is a longtime NY media fixture/reporter, it was contemporaneous to the time of the allegations. As Mia was discussing this she was smiling. Discussing her daughter's molestation and smiling. These people are all off the fucking wall.

[MsDark]

How in the fuck would Moses know what happened unless he was in the room playing with that toy train? I can understand his denial though. Maybe compounded by the fact that Mia is nuts and those children were told things they should not have been. But I still believe Dylan.

I have a good male friend since childhood, along with his sister was molested from a young age by his stepfather. Mom finally left when she found pictures. Several family members still have a hard time admitting the dad was capable of this. There's a younger brother...bio son of the dad, conceived during the marriage who was never abused...who gets pissed when anyone talks about this.

[dexknows]

I stand with Dylan.

I think Dylan's turmoil is indicative of trauma. Abusers seek out vulnerable kids or kids who are experiencing turmoil or in such an environment because who's protecting us and who's believing us? Many of us hold the abuse inside and it manifests in addictions or dysfunction as adults. All I have read and heard about Dylan points to abuse.


the problem us growing up in such dysfunction she's been put under a microscope- this is why so many of us suffer in silence and our demons consume us. We're made to believe we're still that child who must have somehow been deserving or at fault. Or that we've simply imagined it or got it wrong.. It's hard not to project here, but abuse is so much more commonplace than we all know- it's that dirty little secret of shame our Abusers use to hold power over us. I sincerely hope Hollywood Abusers start to be called out- I imagine that so many exist.

[sluce]

I'm always fascinated by how siblings in the same home perceive things.

My ex husband was physically abused by his father and his mother did nothing to intervene. He has a sister 2 years older and one 2 years younger. They were all in the same house and the older one often talked to me about how badly their father beat him. But the younger one would get upset and say "I lived there too and I NEVER saw him do that. Dad was great!" When their Dad died he left everything to the youngest daughter, his "princess."

[sputnik]

except in this case moses is older and therefore less prone to manipulation. dylan and ronan were were very small. after reading about mia's physical assault of soon-yi i can totally believe she's manipulative with a violent temper and definitely had her 'favourites' and had no problem pitting her kids against each other for her own gain. divide and conquer.

[NoNoRehab]

We know that it is a fact that she is entitled to her medical records. It's a legal issue.

I'm not denying that but that's no proof that she's ever looked at her records. I'm entitled to my medical records and never once looked at them as an adult, nevermind any that still exist from my childhood.

But she doesn't need to even look at her medical records. There's a NY Times article, Vanity Fair article, and Mia's memoir, all of which lay out Mia's timeline of events in detail. Just by Mia's book, I know the name of Dylan's therapist from when she was in preschool, the details/dates of some of the sessions, I know what Mia and Dylan talked about re: Soon-Yi, all the details of Dylan's allegation, including what she said she did, what Woody did, dates and times, locations, etc. I was nowhere near the events and as a total stranger I could've written Dylan's letter just from public sources anyone could read.

"I will not see my family dragged down like this," she adds. "I can't stay silent when my family needs me and I will not abandon them like Soon-Yi and Moses. My brother is dead to me. My mother is so brave and so courageous and taught me what it means to be strong and brave and tell the truth even in the face of these monstrous lies."

This stuff is why I side-eye Mia - pitting your kids against each other. How many people are "dead" to other people in that family? Also, it's raising my red flags that Dylan is so focused on Mia in her comments. How does her family "need" her not to stay silent? Both Mia and Ronan are public figures experienced with the press. This scandal did not reignite until Dylan broke her own silence and had the open letter published and she put herself in the spotlight. There was nothing going on to "defend" her mother from, and if there was her mother has decades of fame and press experience vs. Dylan's none. It's Mia who has a Twitter, Mia who's had journalists who are her friends write up her side of the story. Aside from the fact that Mia is the parent and Dylan the child and victim, Mia can more than take care of herself in the public eye.

The comment about she will not "abandon" her family like Soon-Yi and Moses fits with the impression I got from Mia's book. Is Moses not entitled to his own memories, especially being almost a decade older and having been present on the day everyone says an incident went down? It seems contradictory to say on the one hand that Mia just wanted the truth and would love her kids anyway but when one of the kids contradicts her or has different memories they're banished from the family, accused of abandonment and everyone will treat them like they're dead.

[mjw]

Times May Publish Response from Woody Allen on Dylan Farrow’s Accusations


Woody Allen has asked for, and may get, a chance to respond — in an Op-Ed piece in The Times — to a recent column and blog by Nicholas Kristof in which the filmmaker’s adopted daughter detailed her memories of his sexually abusing her.


“They asked and we said, ‘Yes, send it in,’ ” Andrew Rosenthal, The Times’s editorial page editor, told me today by phone.


It’s not certain that The Times will publish the piece. “It comes down to the editing process,” he said, something that all Op-Ed pieces are subject to.


Publishing such a piece is unusual for The Times’s opinion pages.


“Normally, we don’t publish a direct response” as a full Op-Ed article, Mr. Rosenthal said, but as a smaller and less prominent letter to the editor. “In this case, it was so personal, we thought that we should.”


Mr. Rosenthal said that he was comfortable with Mr. Kristof’s handling of the column and blog, particularly because it is well within his usual subject matter.


“He writes about issues like this every day,” he said. And his connection with Mia Farrow, which Mr. Kristof discloses in his column, “comes directly from his journalism.”
“It’s not like he went out of his zone to promote a friend,” Mr. Rosenthal said.


He said that he had been deeply involved in discussions of the column and blog before they were published, and that The Times had explored the legal elements of the situation as well.



Mr. Rosenthal said he did not know when Mr. Allen’s Op-Ed piece might appear, but indicated that it could be within the next few days.
Many readers have written to me about Mr. Kristof’s column. A passionate — and, I’m happy to say, very civil — discussion of the issues can be seen in the reader comments accompanying my Monday post. I have also been updating that post with new commentary from various sources, on all sides.

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.co...pe=blogs&_r=1&

[witchcurlgirl]

It’s not certain that The Times will publish the piece.

Well, that's not quite right.

[MohandasKGanja]

I was nowhere near the events and as a total stranger I could've written Dylan's letter just from public sources anyone could read.

You could have, but it appears that Dylan is becoming increasingly motivated to state what happened, and it will probably be in increasing detail.

There was nothing going on to "defend" her mother from,

I have to disagree on this. Virtually all of Allen's defenders are saying that Dylan is recalling implanted memories, and that Mia implanted them.

Is Moses not entitled to his own memories

He is entitled to his memories, but he is not entitled to Dylan's. Moses said, "Of course, Woody didn't molest my sister." Because Dylan never claimed that this stuff happened in front of Moses, he is making a totally unsupported statement.

[NoNoRehab]

I have to disagree on this. Virtually all of Allen's defenders are saying that Dylan is recalling implanted memories, and that Mia implanted them.

Do you mean going back to 1992, or what? Because again, the thing blew up again after Dylan had her open letter published. It's not like Woody had done an interview or published a piece first, or Moses spoke to People first. Dylan's letter was the preemptive strike that ignited a rehash of the scandal, which caused other people to speak out. Before then, more people were talking about Mia and Frank Sinatra then Mia and Woody recently.

According to Mia, she didn't want to pursue criminal charges back in 1992 because she didn't want Dylan to go through the wringer. According to Mia, Dylan struggled so long to gain privacy and keep out of the public she changed her name three times. If it's true that Mia urged a hesitant Dylan to publish the letter (complete with a current photo of herself), sorry, but that's just gross. Why does Dylan need to step up and defend Mia? Dylan is the child, Dylan is the victim, Dylan is the one who's struggled for years for privacy. Mia is the celebrity with her own Twitter and tons of friends who are writers and journalists. She weathered the original scandal. She's told her story several times and she's defended herself ably. She is the parent, and it's her job to protect Dylan, not the other way around.

I just don't understand what is wrong in Mia's brain that she thinks pitting her kids against each other to fit the battles that Mia, as the parent, should be dealing with is okay. And all the adults involved continuing to try this in the media rather than doing something productive and going to the proper authorities is tiresome. (That now includes Dylan, who as an adult can still attempt to get criminal charges filed against Woody.) Is Woody losing an Oscar THAT important that Mia wants her children slugging it out against each other in the press and reliving the greatest trauma of their lives? It's like when Mia had the other kids pile on Soon-Yi and give her ultimatums because Mia didn't want to deal with it - they're supposed to be your kids, not your foot soldiers.

[Charmed Hour]

I'm always fascinated by how siblings in the same home perceive things.

My ex husband was physically abused by his father and his mother did nothing to intervene. He has a sister 2 years older and one 2 years younger. They were all in the same house and the older one often talked to me about how badly their father beat him. But the younger one would get upset and say "I lived there too and I NEVER saw him do that. Dad was great!" When their Dad died he left everything to the youngest daughter, his "princess."

I am fascinated by it as well. My husband and MIL were pretty severely physically and psychologically abused by his father. To the point that in the early 80s suspected abuse was brought up by the school. Second brother was rarely hit and youngest never once. The three brothers have widely varying opinions about life in their home and exactly what happened when discussed amongst them.

Youngest brother has actually repeated stories to his "friends" of what happened to my husband replacing himself in the story as the abused child. Which is hysterical as he will swear up and down that 1- what my husband and MIL confirm has happening never took place 2- he, himself, was never touched.

[MmeVertigina]

Someone asked about the nanny who allegedly walked in on Woody and Dylan. Her name is Alison Strickland but I couldn't find anything about her, aside from mentions in the original articles from '92. She was a nanny for the kids of Casey Pascal, a friend of Mia's who was visiting. Strickland never went to the authorities nor spoke to Mia directly about the incident; Mia said she heard it from Pascal who heard it from Strickland. Just from a quick Google search, it doesn't appear that Strickland's ever gone public or anybody from the media has ever tracked her down since 1992.[/COLOR]

I was asking, thanks!

[witchcurlgirl]

Moses had claimed back in 1993 that he thought this was made up, according to one of the Nannies, Monica Thompson. She also claimed to have witnessed Mia hit Moses. Her statements are here Nanny Casts Doubt on Farrow Charges : Custody: She tells Allen's lawyers the actress pressured her to support molestation accusations against him. She says others have reservations. - Los Angeles Times