An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow

[NickiDrea]

These people (ScarHo and Diane) are morons. I wonder how they would feel if it was their kid that this perv assaulted?

[crash man]

I feel bad for putting this in 'Latest Gossip' Somehow it seems obscene to put it here. If any of the mods would like to move it to a more appropriate sub-forum that would be great. In any case, what follows is disturbing and triggering.:

An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow

By DYLAN FARROW Frances SilverDylan Farrow
(A note from Nicholas Kristof: In 1993, accusations that Woody Allen had abused his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, filled the headlines, part of a sensational story about the celebrity split between Allen and his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. This is a case that has been written about endlessly, but this is the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public. It’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence. So why publish an account of an old case on my blog? Partly because the Golden Globe lifetime achievement award to Allen ignited a debate about the propriety of the award. Partly because the root issue here isn’t celebrity but sex abuse. And partly because countless people on all sides have written passionately about these events, but we haven’t fully heard from the young woman who was at the heart of them. I’ve written a column about this, but it’s time for the world to hear Dylan’s story in her own words.)

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.
For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.

When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.
After a custody hearing denied my father visitation rights, my mother declined to pursue criminal charges, despite findings of probable cause by the State of Connecticut – due to, in the words of the prosecutor, the fragility of the “child victim.” Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, “who can say what happened,” to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines. Each time I saw my abuser’s face – on a poster, on a t-shirt, on television – I could only hide my panic until I found a place to be alone and fall apart.
Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen’s acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me – to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren’t their memories – have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don’t have to be silent either.
Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.
But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.
What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?
Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.
So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.
Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/201...ype=blogs&_r=0

I'm glad to throw in my support for Dylan Farrow and other survivors (I am not one) of physical and sexual abuse.

[*DIVA!]

She's fibbing

[BelledeJour]

Dylan Farrow: Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?

Editor’s Note: Woody Allen, who declined to comment prior to publication, has long denied the allegations described in this Op-Ed. Dylan Farrow’s allegations against Allen were investigated by sex-abuse experts at Yale-New Haven Hospital, who found no evidence of abuse. Some questioned their methodology. A state’s attorney in Connecticut said he had “probable cause” to prosecute in 1993 but did not file charges.

We are in the midst of a revolution. From allegations against studio heads and journalists, to hotel maids recounting abuses on the job, women are exposing the truth and men are losing their jobs. But the revolution has been selective.

I have long maintained that when I was 7 years old, Woody Allen led me into an attic, away from the babysitters who had been instructed never to leave me alone with him. He then sexually assaulted me. I told the truth to the authorities then, and I have been telling it, unaltered, for more than 20 years. Why is it that Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrities have been cast out by Hollywood, while Allen recently secured a multimillion-dollar distribution deal with Amazon, greenlit by former Amazon Studios executive Roy Price before he was suspended over sexual misconduct allegations? Allen’s latest feature, “Wonder Wheel,” was released theatrically on Dec. 1.

Allen denies my allegations. But this is not a “he said, child said” situation. Allen’s pattern of inappropriate behavior — putting his thumb in my mouth, climbing into bed with me in his underwear, constant grooming and touching — was witnessed by friends and family members. At the time of the alleged assault, he was in therapy for his conduct towards me. Three eyewitnesses substantiated my account, including a babysitter who saw Allen with his head buried in my lap after he had taken off my underwear. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police.

The system worked for Harvey Weinstein for decades. It works for Woody Allen still.
In the final legal disposition of the matter, a judge denied him custody of me, writing that “measures must be taken to protect” me and that there was “no credible evidence” that my mother, Mia Farrow, coached me in any way. A prosecutor took the unusual step of announcing that he had probable cause to charge Allen but declined in order to spare me, a “child victim,” from an exhausting trial.

It is a testament to Allen’s public relations team and his lawyers that few know these simple facts. It also speaks to the forces that have historically protected men like Allen: the money and power deployed to make the simple complicated, to massage the story.

In this deliberately created fog, A-list actors agree to appear in Allen’s films and journalists tend to avoid the subject.

Discussing Weinstein, “Wonder Wheel” star Kate Winslet said, “The fact that these women are starting to speak out about the gross misconduct of one of our most important and well-regarded film producers, is incredibly brave and has been deeply shocking to hear.” Of Allen, she said “I didn’t know Woody and I don’t know anything about that family. As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, I don’t know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false. Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director."

Likewise, Blake Lively said of Weinstein: “It’s important that women are furious right now. It's important that there is an uprising. It's important that we don't stand for this and that we don't focus on one or two or three or four stories, it's important that we focus on humanity in general and say, ‘This is unacceptable.’ ” But on the subject of Allen, she said, “It’s very dangerous to factor in things you don't know anything about. I could [only] know my experience.”

Greta Gerwig, who starred in Allen’s “To Rome With Love” and has called him her “idol,” said of the revelations about Weinstein and other powerful men, “It’s heartbreaking and I think it’s overdue.” But when pressed by Terry Gross of NPR on whether she felt conflicted about working with Allen, Gerwig grew uncomfortable. “You know, it’s all very difficult to talk about....” she said. “I think I'm living in that space of fear of being worried about how I talk about it and what I say.”

For decades, Allen has used the same defense-through-intimidation techniques that Weinstein allegedly did. In 1997, Connecticut Magazine reported that Allen’s legal team had hired private investigators, including ones assigned to find damaging information on law enforcement officials working the sex-abuse case. As my brother Ronan Farrow documented in the Hollywood Reporter last year, Allen’s public relations team, led by Leslee Dart of the firm 42 West, jumps into action whenever allegations resurface. In retaliation for Ronan’s story, Dart barred the publication from a lunch event related to Allen’s feature at the Cannes Film Festival.

Even now, I hesitate to speak out. Allen’s savvy affiliates know that it’s unseemly to direct attacks at me, an alleged victim, and so the invective is directed at my mother again and again. It’s awful and enraging.

Especially painful is that Allen even managed to enlist my brother Moses against me. Moses now claims that my mother “brainwashed” him and “coached” me to accuse Allen, contradicting many years of testimony. Moses’ comments are devastating, but like so many of the attacks on my story, irrelevant: Moses was not there for the alleged assault.

Many publications refuse to run broadsides against me and my family, while others happily repeat the distortions. They repeat that my allegations were made during a custody dispute, which is not true. In fact, Allen sued for custody of me and Ronan only after the investigation into child abuse began. Charming. Many point to a questionable 1993 report that concluded no abuse had taken place. The author of that report never interviewed me, and the team later destroyed all of its notes without explanation.

Although the culture seems to be shifting rapidly, my allegation is apparently still just too complicated, too difficult, too “dangerous,” to use Lively’s term, to confront.

The truth is hard to deny but easy to ignore. It breaks my heart when women and men I admire work with Allen, then refuse to answer questions about it. It meant the world to me when Ellen Page said she regretted working with Allen, and when actresses Jessica Chastain and Susan Sarandon told the world why they never would.

It isn’t just power that allows men accused of sexual abuse to keep their careers and their secrets. It is also our collective choice to see simple situations as complicated and obvious conclusions as a matter of “who can say”? The system worked for Harvey Weinstein for decades. It works for Woody Allen still.

Dylan Farrow: Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen? - LA Times

[Nevan]

I can't even imagine how difficult this is for Dylan. Powerful men, left and right, are being dragged down from their thrones and held (semi) accountable. But not Woody (or Polanski, for that matter). I'm sure Dylan's experience helped guide Ronan to be the advocate he is now. They all listened to him about Harvey. But they have consistently closed their ears when it relates to Woody Allen. I've always thought Woody was creepy and I've never seen one of his movies. I've also always believed Dylan. She wrote multiple quotes from actresses condemning Weinstein and then in the next breath, they cut Woody a break. It must be infuriating and depressing. I wish Hollywood would go one step further from HarveyGate and take down Woody and Polanski. There have been others that have done less than these two and were ostracized. Wake up, Hollywood. I'm still disgusted.

[CornFlakegrl]

^^ Well written piece. I hope she gets justice.

[Kittylady]

I absolutely believe her and it sickens me to see Allen continually lauded the way he is, almost as much as I am sickened every time the picture of him hugging his (obviously uncomfortable) daughters resurfaces.

Allen needs to go down, but I doubt that we'll ever get to see it.

[Tiny Pixie]

I honestly believe her, why would she make that up?
(plus, Woody totally oozes perv vibes IMO)

I'm sick of him and pedoPolanski being praised and honoured and receiving tributes as though they had done nothing wrong it's sickening.
I'm still not over the French cinemathèque having a Polanski retrospective to honour him as if we had run out of talented non pedo directors to honour.

[sparkles]

I love that she is able to express herself so well and I have never had any reason to doubt her. I think she is courageous. As for Allen, he has always had that creep factor for me and I've only ever seen one of his movies-many years ago. I have no intention to see another.

[dallison]

I absolutely believe her and have intentionally never watched a Woody Allen film.

[joebob]

I absolutely believe her and have intentionally never watched a Woody Allen film.

Don't worry. You haven't missed anything. LOL

[OrangeSlice]

Dylan Farrow Gives First TV Interview About Woody Allen Allegations as Alec Baldwin Defends the Director

Mia Farrow's daughter accused Allen of molesting her in 1992 when she was 7 years old. The director, who split from Farrow that year, was investigated by Connecticut State Police but not charged. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.
In an upcoming appearance on CBS This Morning, however, Dylan Farrow insists she's telling the truth. "I am credible, and I am telling the truth, and I think it’s important that people realize that one victim, one accuser, matters, and that they are enough to change things,” she says in a preview for the interview, which will air on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7 a.m. ET/PT.
Farrow's statements about her father have caused several prominent actors, including Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall and Timothee Chalamet to publicly express their regret over working with him. Hall and Chalamet recently announced they would be donating their salaries from working with him to organizations like Time's Up.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, however, Alec Baldwin spoke up in defense of Allen, insisting that Hollywood actors turning their back on him is "unfair and sad."
"Woody Allen was investigated forensically by two states (NY and CT) and no charges were filed. The renunciation of him and his work, no doubt, has some purpose. But it’s unfair and sad to me," Baldwin wrote. "I worked w WA 3 times and it was one of the privileges of my career."
"Is it possible to support survivors of pedophilia and sexual assault/abuse and also believe that WA is innocent? I think so," Baldwin continued. "The intention is not to dismiss or ignore such complaints. But accusing ppl of such crimes should be treated carefully. On behalf of the victims, as well."
Selena Gomez, who stars alongside Hall and Chalamet in Allen's latest movie, has yet to speak out against the director. However, her mother, Mandy Teefey, revealed shedisapproves of her daughter's involvement in the film.

Dylan Farrow Gives First TV Interview About Woody Allen Allegati - CBS News 8 - San Diego, CA News Station - KFMB Channel 8


Alec needs to STFU.

[Tiny Pixie]

I don't think you should be entitled to your opinion when your opinion is that moronic

[twitchy2.0]

Why should women apologise for working with Woody Allen?

From Rebecca Hall to Greta Gerwig, female stars are being held to account for the alleged actions of men, while silence flourishes elsewhere



Chitra Ramaswamy

@Chitgrrl

Mon 15 Jan 2018 17.22 GMTLast modified on Mon 15 Jan 2018 22.00 GMT

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As the #MeToo backlash continues, what do we get? Three actors – Greta Gerwig, Mira Sorvino and Rebecca Hall – apologising for working with Woody Allen. Women are once more being held to account for the alleged actions of men. Meanwhile, Allen, a director nominated for 24 Oscars and who in 1992 was accused of sexually abusing his seven-year-old daughter, Dylan Farrow, is editing his latest film. (Allen denies the accusations.) A Rainy Day in New York is about a middle-aged man (Jude Law, 45) pursuing a 15-year-old girl (Elle Fanning, 19). How it is received when it’s released this year will be an important litmus test of how far we have really come post-Weinstein.
Hall was shooting A Rainy Day in New York when the Weinstein accusations broke. “I see … that my actions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed,” she wrote in an Instagram post in which she added that she had donated her wage to #Time’sUp. “That is not something that sits easily with me in the current or indeed any moment, and I am profoundly sorry.” Compare this brave and honest apology to Allen’s sole comment on the Weinstein scandal, referring to a “witch-hunt atmosphere … where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer”.




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Rebecca Hall offered a ‘brave and honest apology’. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesAllen’s films may not have changed, but the world has, in a dramatically short time. As recently as December, Kate Winslet defended the director with the weird observation that he is “on some level a woman” and, when asked about Allen’s past in the aftermath of the Weinstein allegations, Selena Gomez came out with the equally bizarre: “I stepped back and thought: ‘Wow, the universe works in interesting ways.’” Enough has happened since Dylan Farrow’s excoriating op-ed, “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?”, was published last month that it is now beginning to look like he may not be spared after all.
Yet women have broken silence only for it to flourish elsewhere. Law has yet to apologise for working with Allen. And when male actors do start talking, we get Liam Neeson dismissing breast groping as “childhood stuff” and describing the cascade of sexual harassment allegations as “a bit of a witch-hunt”. (Urgh, that word again, which, remember, refers to the tens of thousands of women and girls executed for practising “witchcraft”.) In a world where #sorrynotsorry is more ubiquitous than actually being sorry, it is women with nothing to apologise for who are doing so with the most grace and humility.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...th-woody-allen

[sputnik]

^^^^
yeah that's total bullshit. why should mira sorvino apologise for the best performance of her career, one that earned her an oscar?

it's crazy how wave after wave of feminism and we still can't get rid of the sanctimony and bullshit internalised misogyny that makes women expect more from other women than of anyone else, judge women more harshly than anyone else, and hold women accountable for the actions of men, or for being "complicit" (which seems to be this year's "problematic", i.e. the insufferable progressive word du jour). fuck that shit.
this latest wave seems to be about who can be the most performatively woke, self-flagellating and apologetic of all.

say what you want about alec baldwin and kate winslet, but they're the only ones calling bullshit on the apologies and refusing to do it. though i have a feeling it won't be long before winslet caves since, as usual, the pressure on women to do so is always greater.