Dylan Farrow - Molested by Woody Allen When She Was 7

Post Reply
John Flynn

Dylan Farrow - Molested by Woody Allen When She Was 7

Post by John Flynn » Sat Feb 01, 2014 6:57 pm

An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow
By DYLAN FARROW


Image

Dylan Farrow
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.

Image

Woody Allen
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/?modul ... on=Opinion

Mike Sullivan

Re: Dylan Farrow - Molested by Woody Allen When She Was 7

Post by Mike Sullivan » Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:38 am

Image
Dylan Farrow sits on Woody Allen's lap for a family photo in 1988


Dylan Farrow renewed molestation allegations against Woody Allen, claiming the movie director sexually assaulted her when she was 7 after he and actress Mia Farrow adopted her.

In an open-letter to The New York Times posted online Saturday, Dylan Farrow made her first public comments about the 1992 incident. In a letter to op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, she said she was moved to speak out because of Hollywood’s continued embrace of Allen.

“That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” wrote Farrow. “I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls.”

The New York Times reported that Allen declined comment. Also, representatives for Allen and for former partner Mia Farrow also did not immediately return requests for comment Saturday from The Associated Press. Allen has long maintained his innocence.
In the letter, Dylan Farrow claims that in 1992 at the family’s Connecticut home, Allen led her to a “dim, closet-like attic” and “then he sexually assaulted me.” Farrow didn’t specify Allen’s actions, but described other abusive behavior.

Farrow said Allen would have her get in bed with him, and at other times “place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out.”
“For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like,” said Farrow. “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.”

Allen was investigated on child molestation claims for the alleged 1992 incident in Connecticut. It was investigated the next year, but prosecutors elected not to charge him.

The handling of the investigation was criticized after Litchfield County state attorney Frank S. Maco said in a press conference there was “probable cause” to charge Allen, although he elected not to. A disciplinary panel found that Maco may have prejudiced the then-ongoing custody battle between Allen and Mia Farrow by making an accusation without formal charges.

The 1992 allegation came shortly after Allen became involved with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Allen was not the adoptive father of Previn, who was about 19 at the time. Allen was in his mid-50s. The two married in 1997 and have two adopted daughters.

Though many fans never forgave Allen for his romance with Previn, the director’s career was largely uninterrupted. He has continued to release a new film almost every year, with his latest, “Blue Jasmine,” earning three Academy Award nominations, including a screenwriting nomination for Allen.

Dylan Farrow’s open-letter was precipitated by Allen being honored at the Golden Globes with the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. Allen didn’t attend as he largely abstains from awards shows. But during the telecast’s tribute, Ronan Farrow 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?”
Image
Ronan Farrow is the lone biological child of Allen and Mia Farrow, though Farrow has said Frank Sinatra could be his father. He is estranged from Allen.
A rebuke followed last week when Robert Weide, director of the PBS “American Masters” documentary on Allen, argued in a lengthy account on the Daily Beast that many were unaware of the facts of Allen’s relationship with Previn and that the incident with Dylan Farrow was unproven.

Dylan Farrow, who said she now lives happily married in Florida under another name, urged people not to forget her side of the story.

http://nypost.com/2014/02/01/dylan-farr ... aulted-me/

Post Reply