I can’t help myself, I’m quite thoroughly captivated by this Woody Allen controversy, it’s an ethical quandary of the societal politics surrounding sexual abuse and it’s acknowledgment in a public forum. To denote Dylan Farrow’s allegations as tabloid fodder is a marginalization of the resonance these incidents have in our culture. We have to devote attention to things like this because it puts our fingers directly on the pulse of our own cultural perception of some very important matters, it draws out the negatives, and gives a voice to the positives. In lieu of a conviction, Woody Allen has been largely tried in what is called “the court of public opinion” to which many journalists and bloggers question the validity of. As such, it does put any of us with a strong opinion in a cumbersome space but I don’t see that as being a justifiable deterrent to the dialogue of which I feel is entirely necessary.
It slightly grates me to see a sudden respect for the judicial system with regards to Mr. Allen that isn’t often shown across the board. George Zimmerman, OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony- would you offer any one of them the same respects? They were tried and acquitted which leaves us neither here nor there in terms of innocence or guilt but people seem to have gotten “there” as far as their opinions are concerned. And it hardly ever prompts soft and fuzzy articles about how we should reserve our opinions until the slam of a gavel. Perhaps if OJ Simpson had been able to write “If I Had Killed My Wife” like he planned to with a charming finesse equivalent to that of any one Woody Allen’s screenplays we might’ve felt differently. But he didn’t. And we don’t.
What sticks in my craw the most though is that so many of Woody Allen’s statements are so readily accepted, presented as fact, and sloppily reported and reproduced a thousand times over. A journalist, without expressing one opinion or the other, can still quash a majority of his points with simple fact-checking. I lose all respect for these journalists and bloggers trying to make a case for neutrality in the absence of a conviction who try to level the playing field with the arguments from Woody’s side that just really don’t hold any water whatsoever. Even if you’re trying to be as diplomatic as possible, a lot of Woody’s statement gets ripped to shreds with a single court document detailing Judge Wilk’s determinations at Mia Farrow and Woody Allen’s last custody hearing which is all public record. There also so many hypocritical remarks that hardly any opinion pieces address as well, it’s atrocious how many points are missed and how many very basic things are overlooked.
Since I am not a journalist, I have the luxury of being able to express my honest and well-informed opinion and I will do just that. It goes against my better judgement to believe Woody Allen is innocent of these claims made by both Dylan and Mia Farrow to a degree where I am unable to pretend there’s any question in my mind. Be that as it may, I substantiated most of my opinions with evidence from court documents that reflect the perspective of Judge Wilk, the presiding judge over Mia Farrow and Woody Allen’s custody hearing. He saw Dylan’s tape wherein she accuses Woody Allen of molestation, he heard every expert from both sides, listened to the testimony of both Mia Farrow and Woody Allen and drew conclusions after hours and hours of reviewing evidence. I also chose to include quotes from Woody statements because, in my opinion, they are more damning and telling than anything Mia or Dylan could say.
Woody on the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic Investigation of Dylan Farrow
“Meanwhile the Connecticut police turned for help to a special investigative unit they relied on in such cases, the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. This group of impartial, experienced men and women whom the district attorney looked to for guidance as to whether to prosecute, spent months doing a meticulous investigation, interviewing everyone concerned, and checking every piece of evidence.”
“NOW it’s 21 years later and Dylan has come forward with the accusations that the Yale experts investigated and found false. Plus a few little added creative flourishes that seem to have magically appeared during our 21-year estrangement.”
Woody and his team insist this confirms his innocence but the court decision made in the custody hearing quite directly questioned the validity of the tests performed….
So, what can we conclude from these excerpts?
- The records of Dylan’s assessments were destroyed
- 2 of the 3 people who supposedly evaluated Dylan refused to testify
- None of the evaluators saw Mia Farrow’s interactions with Dylan but drew conclusions about visitation anyways
- They also claimed Dylan had a “thought disorder” with no evidence to support their theory.
- They drew conclusions about Satchel (Ronan) without ever having met him.
The whole investigation seems entirely unprofessional, inept, and extremely suspicious. What kind of social worker or pediatrician destroys crucial records in something as important as a child abuse case? If the social workers were so sure Dylan wasn’t molested then why wouldn’t they testify to protect a man who was supposedly innocent and wrongfully accused?
“The district attorney was champing at the bit to prosecute a celebrity case, and Justice Elliott Wilk, the custody judge, wrote a very irresponsible opinion saying when it came to the molestation, “we will probably never know what occurred.”
Judge Wilk simply reiterated what he already said at the custody hearing, to say “we will probably never know” is also in no way irresponsible because he said nothing of Woody’s innocence or guilt in that statement.
Woody on the Lie Detector Test He Took
“I very willingly took a lie-detector test and of course passed because I had nothing to hide. I asked Mia to take one and she wouldn’t.”
Simply put, Woody’s lie detector test was inadmissible as evidence since he hired the team that conducted it and he refused the one the state of Connecticut wished to perform. There is also zero evidence Mia Farrow was ever offered to take a lie detector test. The fact he keeps trying to push this empty argument that was, without question, never substantiated in a court of law is just plain silly.
Woody on the inconvenience of being a child molester
“Now, suddenly, when I had driven up to her house in Connecticut one afternoon to visit the kids for a few hours, when I would be on my raging adversary’s home turf, with half a dozen people present, when I was in the blissful early stages of a happy new relationship with the woman I’d go on to marry — that I would pick this moment in time to embark on a career as a child molester should seem to the most skeptical mind highly unlikely”
It’s quite naive to think that pedophiles “choose” a time to be pedophiles, they don’t pick convenient “moments” to “embark on a career as a child molester”. Pedophiles are people who wrestle with inappropriate and predatory sexual impulses directed at children. Being that molestation is deplorable and there’s no proper or moral conduit to satiate it, pedophiles are often driven by desperation. If a pedophile were to have a choice in the matter then wouldn’t they choose to ignore their criminal proclivities? It’s a precarious remark that he’s held onto for years (dating back to his 60 Minutes interview in 1992), one that has been echoed by his legal team as well yet it makes not an ounce of sense.
Woody’s Beliefs about Mia Farrow’s “Coaching”
Now, with regards to claims Mia coached Dylan, Woody says the following…
Is it any wonder the experts at Yale had picked up the maternal coaching aspect 21 years ago?
But, after review in his custody hearing, the following was determined….
Woody on Mia Farrow’s Personal Relationships
“Undoubtedly the attic idea came to her from the Dory Previn song, “With My Daddy in the Attic.” It was on the same record as the song Dory Previn had written about Mia’s betraying their friendship by insidiously stealing her husband, André, ‘Beware of Young Girls.'”
“He [Judge Wilk] thought of me as an older man exploiting a much younger woman, which outraged Mia as improper despite the fact she had dated a much older Frank Sinatra when she was 19.”
In an effort to discredit Mia Farrow’s character, Allen dealt much more damage to his own with these two statements as both evidence an astounding lack of self-awareness. Chiefly, the assertion that Mia’s relationship with Frank Sinatra was in any way comparable to his relationship with Soon-Yi is a flimsily-constructed and a silly counter to the outrage his relationship with Soon-Yi caused. Frank Sinatra had no prior relationship with Mia Farrow’s mother before the two became involved, she didn’t view any of his children as siblings nor did she even know them previous to her relationship with Sinatra, no family dynamic was affected by their relationship and held nothing even close to a paternal role in her life.
Woody has some audacity to point to Mia’s affair with Previn and relationship with Sinatra as indicators of a lack of ethical sensibility. These bold words are coming from a man who cheated on his longtime partner with her daughter and the sister of their children. Woody Allen hasn’t got a leg to stand on if he wants to go tit-for-tat with Mia Farrow, the two perceived offenses he cited in her past were both committed by him simultaneously and his girlfriend’s child and children’s sister to boot.
Woody’s Feelings About Ronan Farrow’s Paternity
Now, what can we make of Woody’s feelings about Ronan and Frank Sinatra?
“I pause here for a quick word on the Ronan situation. Is he my son or, as Mia suggests, Frank Sinatra’s? Granted, he looks a lot like Frank with the blue eyes and facial features, but if so what does this say? That all during the custody hearing Mia lied under oath and falsely represented Ronan as our son? Even if he is not Frank’s, the possibility she raises that he could be, indicates she was secretly intimate with him during our years. Not to mention all the money I paid for child support. Was I supporting Frank’s son? Again, I want to call attention to the integrity and honesty of a person who conducts her life like that.”
What I find most indignant about this statement, other than the hypocrisy of his 2nd dig at Mia’s sense of fidelity, is that nowhere in this statement does Woody indicate any feelings of betrayal or hurt. For all intents purposes, Mia entrusted Woody to be the father of Ronan regardless of his biological paternity. Woody saying she “falsely represented Ronan as his son” is a very detached take on the situation that is furthered by him posing the question “Not to mention all the money I paid for child support. Was I supporting Frank’s son?”.
Woody taking issue with Mia’s infidelity is understandable but the fact that her indiscretion invalidates Ronan as a son in Woody’s eyes is disconcerting. He doesn’t seem to lament that the son he tried (and failed a few times over) to get custody of a few times over isn’t his and instead is more concerned about the money he shelled out to support him. There’s a bloodlessness to his sentiments regarding Ronan that starkly contrasts his feelings about Dylan whom he still claims to love and miss. It’s also worth noting there were claims made by Dylan of physical abuse towards Ronan (then named Satchel) by Woody that were on record with the Connecticut state police.
If you think this is Judge Wilk commending Woody for expressing interest in spending more time with Satchel, not so fast, he specified reluctance to trust Allen’s motives in the section where he discussed visitation…
Woody On Moses Farrow
Woody and a lot of media outlets also love to cite Moses Farrow as an asset to his defense, Woody made sure to once again incorporate this into his statement…
“Here I quote Moses Farrow, 14 at the time: “My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister.” Moses is now 36 years old and a family therapist by profession.”
I find it interesting that the words of one child are given so much gravity in a family of 15 children. 8 of those 15 children contributed to Mia Farrow’s Vanity Fair article in support of her. 2 of her children, Tam and Lark Farrow, are deceased so that leaves 13 children. Take away the two that support Woody and you have 11 and of those 11 there are 8 that take Mia Farrow’s side with 3 that are unaccounted for. Of course, Moses’ words may take precedence merely due to the fact he’s one of the only people who would even think to publicly support Woody Allen that is not on his payroll.
Woody on the Court’s Determinations
“Mia took custody of the children and we went our separate ways.”
She took custody? Mia didn’t “take” custody of the children, it was granted to her. Multiple times. It was a very deliberate decision, not a theft…
Also, a noteworthy snippet, Woody’s defense was so miserable the judge had him pay Mia Farrow’s legal fees….
For the most part, Mia Farrow comes out unscathed in Judge Wilk’s conclusions. As a matter in fact, he claims her most flawed attribute as a mother was her devotion and loyalty to Woody Allen…
My Conclusions
After all of this I am extremely inclined to believe Dylan and Mia’s side of the story. Even if I had reservations the scale is steeply tipped in their favor to a point where it’s hard for me to see people using pieces of Woody Allen’s case to defend even a stance of neutrality. I don’t suggest we come at him with pitchforks and torches but I can’t pretend to have not heard these positively ridiculous and offensive things from both him and his camp.
There’s also an often-floated theory that maybe Mia and Ronan stand to profit off of this by gaining publicity to promote themselves which I find just repugnant. Ronan is ridiculously accomplished- he went to college at 11, he has 2 degrees, worked within the Obama administration, worked beside Hilary Clinton and Richard Holbrook, is a Rhodes Scholar, and already secured a position with MSNBC ages before Dylan’s statement…all before the age of 26. What could he gain from association with Woody Allen that could surpass all of that? Mia Farrow is a UNICEF ambassador who hardly ever works in film anymore, almost never grants personal interviews, and has devoted her life to Humanitarian causes both through both international efforts and domestic ones within the confines of her house, even. Soon-Yi, Moses, and many of her other children faced poverty, exploitation, child labor, and perhaps even certain death in some cases and she took them in and cared for them. To pit the character of Woody Allen, who writes and directs wonderful movies but seems devoid of basic human decency even without a conviction, against that that of Ronan or Mia is just ridiculous.
Perhaps I can’t convict Woody Allen myself but I really can’t bring myself to defend him at all. People keep insisting this all must be put through the judicial system before we draw conclusions yet in lieu of that possibility I’m OK with just settling for taking Dylan’s side. Even if you take away every personal opinion I have here, there is a lot that was still taken to the courts that supports Dylan and Mia’s assertions and proves Woody Allen to be a liar and about many things that pertain to the accusations against him.
Get A Hold Of Yourself 