Hollywood legend Woody Allen responded to his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s accusations of childhood molestation in a New York Times op-ed.
Woody Allen chose to respond in the same publication in which Dylan Farrow made the claim a week ago.
“Of course, I did not molest Dylan,” the film-maker wrote.
Dylan Farrow immediately responded with her own counterclaim, saying: “Nothing he says or writes can change the truth.”
Woody Allen responded to his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s accusations of childhood molestation
Woody Allen, 78, claimed the entire scandal was orchestrated by Dylan’s adopted mother Mia Farrow.
The film director and Mia Farrow were in a lengthy relationship that ended bitterly in 1992.
Dylan Farrow wrote, through a spokesman: “His op-ed is the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years. He insists my mother brought criminal charges – in fact, it was a pediatrician who reported the incident to the police based on my firsthand account. He suggests that no one complained of his misconduct prior to his assault on me – court documents show that he was in treatment for what his own therapist described as <<inappropriate>> behavior with me from as early as 1991.”
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Woody Allen is again denying he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in an open letter published online by The New York Times.
Woody Allen, 78, said Dylan Farrow had been coached to make the claim by his estranged former partner, Mia Farrow.
He wrote in the newspaper that Dylan Farrow had been “used as a pawn for revenge” against him by her mother.
Dylan Farrow wrote last week in the New York Times that Woody Allen abused her in 1992 when she was seven years old in an attic at Mia Farrow’s Connecticut home.
Woody Allen alleges that Mia Farrow orchestrated the “smear” after discovering earlier in the same year that he was having an affair with her other adopted daughter from a previous partner, Soon-Yi Previn.
He began a relationship with Soon-Yi Previn when she was about 19. They wed in 1997 and remain married.
“Not that I doubt Dylan hasn’t come to believe she’s been molested,but if from the age of 7 a vulnerable child is taught by a strong mother to hate her father because he is a monster who abused her, is it so inconceivable that after many years of this indoctrination the image of me Mia wanted to establish had taken root?” Woody Allen wrote.
Woody Allen is again denying he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in an open letter
He adds: “Of course, I did not molest Dylan. I loved her and hope one day she will grasp how she has been cheated out of having a loving father and exploited by a mother more interested in her own festering anger than her daughter’s well-being.”
Dylan Farrow has previously said she decided to break her silence after two decades when Allen Allen’s latest film, Blue Jasmine, was nominated for an Oscar.
But Woody Allen said in his rebuttal that her allegation includes “creative flourishes that seem to have magically appeared during our 21-year estrangement”.
He wrote that he always kept away from the cramped attic because he suffers from claustrophobia.
“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,” he wrote.
Woody Allen points out that a panel of psychologists, appointed by prosecutors, concluded Dylan Farrow had not been molested.
He also wrote that he had passed a lie-detector test over the matter, while Mia Farrow, now 68, declined to take one.
Woody Allen said the article would be “my final word on this entire matter”, concluding: “Enough people have been hurt.”
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The Los Angeles Times op-ed department had Dylan Farrow’s letter accusing Woody Allen of abuse prior to its publication on New York Times.
“We got it, we considered it, we ultimately decided not to use it,” said LA Times op-ed editor Sue Horton.
The Los Angeles Times op-ed department had Dylan Farrow’s letter accusing Woody Allen of abuse prior to its publication on New York Times
Dylan Farrow’s letter was eventually posted by columnist Nicholas Kristof Saturday afternoon on the New York Times website.
Nicholas Kristof included a disclosure in a separate blog post that he was friends with Dylan’s mother, Mia Farrow, and brother Ronan.
Earlier Wednesday, New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan revealed that Woody Allen had contacted the paper and requested to write a response to Dylan Farrow’s claims.
Barbara Walters defended Woody Allen from allegations by his estranged daughter Dylan Farrow that he assaulted her when she was a child during Monday’s edition of The View.
Other panelists on the show tried to argue that Woody Allen’s previous attraction to younger women could give credibility to the claims, but Barbara Walters shut them down repeatedly.
“I know Mia [Farrow], I have a good relationship with her,” Barbara Walters explained.
Barbara Walters defended Woody Allen from allegations by his estranged daughter Dylan Farrow
“But I’ve been with Woody many times with his two daughters, he’s got almost a twenty-year-old marriage … I have rarely seen a father as sensitive, and as loving and as caring as Woody is to his daughters. … I don’t know about Dylan, I can only tell you about what I’ve seen now, that it’s a good marriage and that he’s a loving, caring father.”
“She has nothing to gain by coming out and saying this,” Jenny McCarthy said.
“Supposedly, she’s very angry,” Barbara Walters responded.
“But she’s doing it now because he’s up for an award, so the question is does your personal life interfere with the award?”
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Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, has renewed claims the filmmaker “abused” her as a child in 1992.
In an open letter, Dylan Farrow accuses Woody Allen of molesting her in a “dim, closet-like attic” at the age of seven.
Dylan Farrow, now 28, also criticizes Hollywood’s continued celebration of “a predator [who] brought chaos into our home”.
Woody Allen, now 78, was investigated over the abuse allegations at the time of the incident, but was not charged.
A panel of psychologists, appointed by US prosecutors and the police, concluded that Dylan Farrow had not been molested.
The case caused controversy when a prosecutor later said there had been “probably cause” to charge Woody Allen, but he had chosen not to, in order to protect the child.
The movie director has always maintained his innocence. He has previously accused Mia Farrow of fabricating the claims after their highly publicized break-up in 1992.
Dylan Farrowopens her letter, published on the New York Times website, by asking: “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 s**ually abused me.”
Dylan Farrow accuses Woody Allen of molesting her at the age of seven
Dylan Farrow, who now lives in Florida under a different name, said she developed an eating disorder and was self-harming following the incident.
“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” she writes.
She said she decided to break her silence after two decades, when Woody Allen’s latest film, Blue Jasmine, was nominated for an Oscar last week.
Dylan Farrow explained that Hollywood had made her “torment worse” by turning “a blind eye” to her story.
“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. But this time, I refuse to fall apart,” she says.
Dylan Farrow also takes aim against actors who have appeared in Woody Allen’s movies.
“What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?”
Last month, Diane Keaton accepted a lifetime achievement award for Woody Allen, who has a reputation for being notoriously reclusive.
Diane Keaton’s move sparked a major debate on social networks. It drew heavy criticism from Woody Allen’s biological son with Mia Farrow, Ronan, who tweeted: “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?”
Dylan Farrow’s letter has already sent ripples through Hollywood.
Blue Jasmine star Cate Blanchett responded to the piece saying: “It’s obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some resolution and peace.”
Meanwhile, hosts at the Writers Guild Awards ceremony included references to the scandal in their puns on Saturday night.
Mia Farrow became romantically involved with Woody Allen in the early 1980s. The pair, who never married and kept separate homes, jointly adopted Dylan and her brother, Moses.
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow split in 1992 amid revelations that Allen had an affair with another adopted daughter of the actress, Soon-Yi.
The molestation allegations surfaced shortly after the breakup.
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