The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast

Twenty-one years after the first
allegations that Woody Allen abused his adopted daughter, that incident
is back in the news thanks to the director’s ex-partner, Mia Farrow, and
estranged son, Ronan Farrow. But what does a closer examination reveal?

As anyone with access to
a computer knows, Woody Allen has been pilloried of late across the
internet, over allegations that 21 years ago, he molested the daughter
he and Mia Farrow adopted in 1985. Countless people have weighed in on
this, many of them without the slightest idea of what the facts are in
this matter. I consider myself allergic to gossip and tabloids, and go
out of my way to avoid them. So when a celebrity is being devoured by
the two-headed piranha of gossip and innuendo, I usually have minimal
understanding of what they did, or were alleged to have done. Woody
Allen is an exception.

I produced and directed the two-part PBS special, Woody Allen: A Documentary,
that premiered in the U.S. on the “American Masters” series. I also
supervised and consulted on the brief clip montage that aired as part of
the recent Golden Globes telecast, when Allen received the Cecil B.
DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement.


When I went online the morning after the Globes broadcast, I found
more than one email asking if I had seen the previous night’s tweets
from Mia Farrow and her son, Ronan. A quick search led me not only to
the accusatory tweets, but to the explosion of internet chatter that
followed in their wake. The more benevolent comments suggested Woody
should rot in jail. Others were demanding his head on a pike.

Last fall, Vanity Fair
magazine ran an article about Mia and her family, which included an
interview with the 28-year-old Malone (née Dylan), who, at the age of
seven, was at the center of Mia’s allegations that made headlines during
the brutal custody battle between her and Woody. In the recent
interview, Malone stands behind her mother’s accusation. It was the
one-two punch of the Vanity Fair piece and the Farrow tweets that stirred up the hornet’s nest that had remained somewhat dormant over the past 20 years.


My documentary covered Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi Previn
(Mia’s adopted daughter and Woody’s wife of 16 years) and the ensuing
fall-out, but I chose not to go down the rabbit hole detailing the
custody case, as my film was primarily about his work, and I had no
interest in allowing it to turn into a courtroom drama. I did, however,
thoroughly research the entire episode in order to reach my own
conclusions about what did or didn’t take place.

My association with Woody is primarily a professional one, though
we’ve remained friendly since the documentary and still occasionally
correspond by email via his assistant (since Woody still types on a 60-year old manual typewriter).
When I wrote him the day after the ceremony, he was vaguely aware that
Mia and Ronan had badmouthed him (again), but he wasn’t certain what
Twitter was. (He’s heard of blogging and always confuses the two.)
Because he doesn’t go online, he was blissfully unaware of how much ink
(sorry, bandwidth) the story was getting. If he had known, he still
wouldn’t have cared. Mia’s accusations were old business, and the fact
that Ronan was publicly chiming in meant nothing to Woody, who hadn’t
even seen his (alleged) son for 20 years. I also knew Woody would never
publicly respond to any of this. His indifference to the gossip has
always struck me not as a decision so much as an involuntary and organic
reaction. In fact, during a written exchange that day in which I
mentioned the tweet attack, he was more focused on giving me advice
about a stye I had on my eyelid that I joked was probably a brain tumor:
“I agree, you probably do have a brain tumor. You should get your
affairs in order quickly as those things can move rather rapidly. You’ll
probably start to have some problems with your balance—don’t panic—it’s
quite natural for a brain tumor.” He then counseled me not to use up my
“remaining days” fretting over Mia.


As the day progressed, it seemed the misinformation on the internet
was growing exponentially spurious by the minute. The more even-keeled
bloggers and pundits were asking, “Is it possible to separate the art
from the artist?” or “Is America ready to forgive Woody Allen?” The very
phrasing of these questions presumed that Woody had done something
terrible, and we had to decide how much we would let it bother us. My
wife suggested that in absence of a response by Woody, he was being
swiftboated. His silence created a vacuum that everybody with a keyboard
was going to fill with whatever they believed or thought they believed
or heard from someone else who heard from someone who linked to the Vanity Fair article.

I
considered whether to enter the fray, since my credentials were in
order, so to speak. I had researched these events, I knew Woody—was
friendly with him, but we weren’t so close that anyone could rightfully
accuse me of being in his pocket. Quite the opposite in fact, as Woody
had already advised me not to get involved. But as I came across more
and more articles and blogs filled with misinformation, my wife said
something to me that struck a chord: “You have just as much right to
weigh in on this as anyone else, regardless of what Woody thinks.”

So here I go—contributing to the very noise I’ve been complaining about.

There are basically two issues at play here. One is Woody’s starting a
romantic/sexual relationship with Mia’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi
Previn, in 1991. The other is Mia’s accusation—used during their custody
battle for their three shared children—that Woody molested their
7-year-old adopted daughter Dylan. People tend to confuse these two
issues, so let’s examine them separately.


First, the Soon-Yi situation:

Every time I stumble upon this
topic on the internet, it seems the people who are most outraged are
also the most ignorant of the facts. Following are the top ten
misconceptions, followed by my response in italics:

#1: Soon-Yi was Woody’s daughter. False.

#2:  Soon-Yi was Woody’s step-daughter. False.

#3:  Soon-Yi was Woody and Mia’s adopted daughter. False. Soon-Yi was the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and André Previn. Her full name was Soon-Yi Farrow Previn.

#4:  Woody and Mia were married. False.

#5:  Woody and Mia lived together. False.
Woody lived in his apartment on Fifth Ave. Mia and her kids lived on
Central Park West. In fact, Woody never once stayed over night at Mia’s
apartment in 12 years.


#6:  Woody and Mia had a common-law marriage. False. New York
State does not recognize common law marriage. Even in states that do, a
couple has to cohabitate for a certain number of years.

#7:  Soon-Yi viewed Woody as a father figure. False. Soon-Yi saw Woody as her mother’s boyfriend. Her father figure was her adoptive father, André Previn.

#8: Soon-Yi was underage when she and Woody started having relations. False. She was either 19 or 21. (Her year of birth in Korea was undocumented, but believed to be either 1970 or ’72.)

#9:  Soon-Yi was borderline retarded. Ha! She’s smart as a whip, has a degree from Columbia University and speaks more languages than you.

#10:  Woody was grooming Soon-Yi from an early age to be his child bride. Oh,
come on! According to court documents and Mia’s own memoir, until 1990
(when Soon-Yi was 18 or 20), Woody “had little to do with any of the
Previn children, (but) had the least to do with Soon-Yi” so Mia
encouraged him to spend more time with her. Woody started taking her to
basketball games, and the rest is tabloid history. So he hardly “had his
eye on her” from the time she was a child.

Let me add this:
If anyone is creeped out by the notion of a 55-year old man becoming
involved with his girlfriend’s 19-year old adopted daughter, I
understand. That makes perfect sense. But why not get the facts
straight? If the actual facts are so repugnant to you, then why
embellish them?

It’s understandable that Mia would remain furious
with Woody for the rest of her life. If I were in Mia’s position, I’m
sure I’d feel the same way. (Though I’d likely handle it as a private
matter and not be tweeting about him being a pedophile, just before
tweeting, “omfg look at this baby panda.”) I also understand the
simmering anger of Ronan Farrow (née Satchel), who has famously said of
Allen, “He’s my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and
his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression.” However, this
particular dilemma might be resolved by Mia’s recent revelations that
Ronan’s biological father may “possibly” be Frank Sinatra, whom Farrow
married in 1966, when she was 21 and the crooner was 50.

While
we’re on the subject, a word about this Sinatra business: To even say
that Ronan is “possibly” Sinatra’s son implies that Mia was fooling
around with her ex-husband decades after their divorce. Backdating from
Ronan’s birthdate, it means that Farrow and Sinatra “hooked up” in March
of 1987 when Mia was 42 and Old Blue Eyes was 71. This sort of dispels
the myth that Woody and Mia had this idyllic, loving, monogamous
relationship until Woody threw it all away in 1992, since Mia was
apparently diddling her ex, five years earlier. If Mia was “just
kidding” about the Sinatra scenario, it was an awfully insensitive thing
to say, considering the fact that Sinatra’s wife, Barbara, is still
very much alive. Did Mia stop to think how her coy tease might be
perceived by the widow Sinatra? One can only wonder if this also fits
Ronan’s definition of a “moral transgression.” (One may also wonder
whether Woody is owed a fortune in reimbursement for child support.)

I
am not here to slam Mia. I think she’s an exceptional actress and I
seriously admire her political activism. (I even follow her on Twitter.)
But those who hate Woody “for what he did to Mia,” should be reminded
that if Sinatra was indeed Ronan’s biological father, it’s not the first
time Mia had a child by a married man. In 1969, at the age of 24, she
became pregnant by musician/composer André Previn, 40, who was still
married to singer/songwriter Dory Previn. The betrayal is said to have
led to Dory Previn’s mental breakdown and institutionalization, during
which she received electroconvulsive therapy. She would later write a
song called, “Beware of Young Girls”
about Mia. Maybe sleeping with your friend’s husband doesn’t earn as
many demerits as sleeping with your girlfriend’s adopted daughter, but
if you’re waving the “Never Forget” banner in Mia’s honor, let’s be
consistent and take a moment to also remember the late Dory Previn. (Or better yet, let’s forget the whole damn thing, considering it’s none of our business.)