The Rush to Judging Woody Allen With Child Abuse
With the reemergence of child abuse accusations against film director, Woody Allen remains one of the polarizing figures in film to this day. Unfairly so, in my opinion. The practice of identifying with someone is a very dangerous undertaking, especially where writers are concerned. Often people will see a character or a plot and think, “They understand what I am going through.” Thus, a tenuous connection forms. People look at Allen’s work and the conclusion drawn is of a snarky, hypochondriac, witty little jerk. He has good qualities and bad. People identify with him because those qualities make him feel all the more human than any other Hollywood personality.
Make no mistake, it doesn’t make him more sympathetic. Far from it. On the contrary, it makes him a far easier target. Take the reemergence of the child abuse allegations against Woody Allen. To date, Allen has not been tried for the child abuse allegations, which are nearing 30 years. With the recent Me-Too move taking down a lot of entertainment heavyweights, such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, along with newsmen Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and Matt Lauer, it would be difficult to find any level headed person could come up with as to explain why Allen hasn’t.
The Woody Allen Child Abuse
In an interview on Argentinian news program Periodismo Para Todos, appear on the Guardian website, Allen countered:
“Of course not, this is just so crazy,” he said. “This is something that has been thoroughly looked at 25 years ago by all the authorities and everybody came to the conclusion that it was untrue. And that was the end and I’ve gone on with my life. For it to come back now, it’s a terrible thing to accuse a person of. I’m a man with a family and my own children.”
Woody Allen Supports “Me Too”?
Allen goes further in the article. Allen suggests he should be the poster boy for the “Me Too” movement. Consider Allen’s words before you blow him off: From the same article:
“As I say, I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement,” he said. “I feel when they find people who harass innocent women and men, it’s a good thing that they’re exposing them. But you know I, I should be the poster boy for the #MeToo movement. Because I have worked in movies for 50 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses and not a single one – big ones, famous ones, ones starting out – have ever, ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all. I’ve always had a wonderful record with them.”
Moreover, Moses Farrow, another son of Woody and Mia, has come out in support of his father and offered a very different perspective: This from an article on the Guardian:
““I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention,” Farrow wrote in the post titled A Son Speaks Out. “But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks on my father, Woody Allen, I feel that I can no longer stay silent as he continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit.”
Is Mia Farrow Lying?
The article goes onto state:
‘Moses elaborated further on claims he had made in previous interviews that his mother was physically abusive to him and her other children and that she coerced her daughter Dylan into accusing Allen of assault.”
A precursory reading about the entire affair will put a large shadow of doubt about Mia Farrow. Moses’ defense rings very compellingly.
