Mean-Spirited Celebrity Gossip

[soccergirl]

I get that this is a really complex and frustratingly confusing case, but the prosecutor at the time *did* say there was probable cause to charge Woody but that it would be too traumatic for Dylan http://www.people.com/people/article...782501,00.html
The fact that Dylan sticks to her story all these years later, that false accusations are rare, that she has a lot to lose by speaking out, and that Woody Allen is incontrovertibly a fucked-up asshole who began a sexual relationship with his partner's daughter when she was a teenager, have all convinced me she is telling the truth.
And this isn't a recovered memory - she has stuck to her story, and she, and others, have testified to his inappropriate behaviour round her when she was a child, and her discomfort with him.
This is the best piece I've read on it: http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/zungu...ens-good-name/

[roly]

I couldn't get through that Daily Beast article he references. That guy just seemed to be such a Woody fan that I couldn't take him seriously. "I'm not a huge fan of his. I just made a documentary about him. But we're totally not friends, we're just friendLY. So obviously I'm a completely unbiased source and not having been there and having no way of knowing what the truth is, let me explain why Dylan is a lying liar who lies." Stabby

I haven't even touched on the acrobatics people are still performing in order to justify his relationship with Soon-yi. "He was not her stepfather. He barely knew her. They had nothing to do with each other, ever." Oh, I see. So, they just went from being complete strangers to fucking overnight? Well that makes total sense. And the fact that they're still together proves nothing to me. He HAD to marry her. Otherwise, he was for sure just a creepy old fuck boning his girlfriend's daughter. Marrying her and staying married legitimizes their relationship to enough people that it has salvaged his career.

[isadora]

I am inclined to believe Dylan Farrow for all the reason y'all have stated. I just think that since I'm a nobody (in the big scheme of things) I'm open to entertaining every option in my mind. I actually agree with lots of the Daily Beast article to be honest. Not all of it! But about 60%.

But if I were Lena Dunham? I'd be saying the stuff she's saying for the same reasons she is. We must advocate for victims! However, I think this particular case is a product of two crazy people, living their bullshit "creative", privileged lives (sadly their children have to live with the consequences) in a time that was fraught with all kinds of strange paranoia about how society was changing too fast and leading to a hysterical conflation of sex and evil. This was the era of satanic panic and, weirdly, rampant false sex abuse allegations, particularly in day care centers.

I guess I keep stepping back and thinking about it in the context of 1993, where it looks very different than through the current cultural lens where we can call out bad behavior in the public square with ease.

In other sexual predator news: We were just talking about what a fucking horror show Bill Cosby is!

Despite my vague feelings about the Allen case, I only hope all of this media attention can create some cultural shift against predators and in favor of the victims. I highly doubt it, though. Rape is a free crime in this country. I've said it many times and I hate that it's true. Until women form a Black Panthers-esque organization to target serial predators? I don't think anything will change.

[BreezyK]

ophy obviously would be able to shed more light on this, but I always figured that all the Farrows were in therapy because she adopted some really damaged children and that was her way of helping all of them. I thought there was a reference here when that article came out last year about how emotionally damaged Soon-Yi is and how she could probably have never articulated her feelings for Woody in the way that she was purported to do in a statement.

I'm not saying that Mia isn't crazy, but I also 100% believe Dylan.

[roly]

Word, Is. It's just mind-blowing and disheartening that with all the progress we've made, rape is still such a common thing, and it's still considered shameful and not talked about nearly enough. And when it is talked about, almost 50% of the population seems to dismiss it out of hand.

I still can't process that Bill Cosby stuff. I had his recent comedy special on my DVR and I had to delete it. Thanks for ruining my childhood memories, creep.

[ophy]

but I always figured that all the Farrows were in therapy because she adopted some really damaged children and that was her way of helping all of them.

Oh, yes. Soon-Yi in particular sounds like a pretty classic case of attachment disorder (no surprise given her traumatic beginnings) and when one kid has attachment issues, it affects the whole family. It would have been negligent for Mia to not put them in some form of therapy if she could afford to. In general, though, when you have that many kids in a house that have gone through institutionalization, therapy is required where possible. The sad thing is that so many families can't afford it, and the issues just snowball.

I would have judged Mia big time if she hadn't had them do some kind of counseling as a family (and individually where necessary). Most of the big blended adoptive families do, that's just common sense.

I'm not saying that Mia isn't crazy, but I also 100% believe Dylan.

Pretty much where I stand.

[isadora]

I feel like following the Mia/Woody case is like my full time job right now (as it gives me no time to pursue my actual job).

Moses weights in in a rather unpleasant way.

I feel like Woody's rebuttals have had the right tenor--he believes Dylan believes and is saddened that her mother created this situation. That's the best possible angle for denial from a PR standpoint.

Moses? Eh, could use some PR help.

"My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister," Moses, 36, tells PEOPLE in the magazine's new issue. "And I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi."
--
"Of course Woody did not molest my sister," says Moses, who is estranged from Farrow and many of his siblings and is close to Allen and Soon-Yi. "She loved him and looked forward to seeing him when he would visit. She never hid from him until our mother succeeded in creating the atmosphere of fear and hate towards him. The day in question, there were six or seven of us in the house. We were all in public rooms and no one, not my father or sister, was off in any private spaces. My mother was conveniently out shopping. I don’t know if my sister really believes she was molested or is trying to please her mother. Pleasing my mother was very powerful motivation because to be on her wrong side was horrible."

Dylan came back firing on all cylinders and will be surely getting a 60 Minutes interview or the like very soon, I'd guess. Or perhaps a spot on her brother's new talk show? I'm not saying that to be cynical! It's probably where she'd feel safest, I'd guess.

Dylan's Response
Dylan insists that she is telling the truth.

"This is such a betrayal to me and my whole family," she tells PEOPLE in response to her brother's comments. "My memories are the truth and they are mine and I will live with that for the rest of my life."

"My mother never coached me," Dylan says. "She never planted false memories in my brain. My memories are mine. I remember them. She was distraught when I told her. When I came forward with my story she was hoping against hope that I had made it up. In one of the most heartbreaking conversations I have ever had, she sat me down and asked me if I was telling the truth. She said that Dad said he didn’t do anything. and I said, 'He's lying.' "

And then more family in-fighting:

Moses accuses Farrow of bullying him as well. "Our mother has misled the public into believing it was a happy household of both biological and adopted children," he says. "From an early age, my mother demanded obedience and I was often hit as a child. She went into unbridled rages if we angered her, which was intimidating at the very least and often horrifying, leaving us not knowing what she would do."

"I don't know where he gets this about getting beaten," counters Dylan. "We were sent to our rooms sometimes."

"I will not see my family dragged down like this," she adds. "I can't stay silent when my family needs me and I will not abandon them like Soon-Yi and Moses. My brother is dead to me. My mother is so brave and so courageous and taught me what it means to be strong and brave and tell the truth even in the face of these monstrous lies."

Farrow, who declined to respond to Moses's accusations, Tweeted, "I love my daughter. I will always protect her. A lot of ugliness is going to be aimed at me. But this is not about me, it's about her truth." [EXCEPT THAT TIME YOU DEFENDED POLANSKI]

Moses, a family therapist, says that his own life has been made better by spending time with Allen.

"I think my sister is missing a great deal in life in not reconnecting with her father, who had always adored her," he says. "It’s important that she assert her independence from our mother and not go through life with the false impression that she has been molested by my father. I am very happy I have come into my own power, separating from my mother, which has led to a positive reunion with my father."

'Horrible Tragedy'
Allen's family says that the director is devastated by Dylan's letter.

"This is a horrible, horrible tragedy," Allen's sister Letty Aronson tells PEOPLE. "He feels very badly for Dylan, that she has been so poisoned by her mother."

Dylan, of course, feels very differently.

"I have a wonderful family," she says. "We are brave and we are truthful and anyone who says anything otherwise does not know us."

• With reporting by K.C. BAKER

Needless to say I'm buying alllll the tabloids this week.

[NeoMaxy]

Reactive Attachment Disorder is real and has repercussions for the whole family. For decades. All I have to say about that.

I'm curious how Is feels about Soon-Yi and Woody considering her feels for Mary Kay/Vili.

[isadora]

I have very different feelings about tabloid stories than I do real life.

My feeling is that once your story is in the eye of the tabloid hurricane? The truth is lost. So, I found MK's shenanigans amazing tabloid fodder (and still do). But I also think she's a crazy bitch who probably ruined Villi's life. But he's a grown-up now and probably could have moved on but didn't? Sometimes the truth is messier than we want it to be.

I think Woody's relationship with Soon-Yi was a moral transgression that was on par with MK/Villi--with the added insult of it being a the daughter of his girlfriend with whom he shared children. And Soon-Yi obviously threw over everybody in her life for Woody, which means she had some fault in it, too, if she was over 18.

MK seduced Ville when he was a child--like 12? And Woody entered Soon-Yi's life at about the same age (though when/how it evolved to sex is largely unknown, often thought to be 18-ish but who's to say? The only people who know aren't talking about it).

I have no idea what level Soon-Yi was operating at emotionally or intellectually. I've read everything from "she had a major attachment disorder and wasn't capable of true feelings" to her being smart and witty and having a college degree. I'd guess the truth is somewhere in between.

I know y'all are side-eyeing me for not taking a stronger stand against Woody Allen but I am still an angry feminist that takes the victim's side! I swear!

[Sarah]

I'm just grossed out that basically US Weekly bullshit has creeped into the New York Times and that wouldn't have happened if they didn't have their affluent New Yorker status. Girls are raped every day for much longer periods of their lives who do not have the networking or the money to access the Times. The Farrow bunch lost all credibility with me after a Polanski endorsement because if I was Dylan - and abused - and my mother defended Polanski instead of cursing him to seven hells with all the other disgusting industry people - I would separate myself from her for good.

So I have no opinion really on who did what because I wasn't there. I think Allen is an eccentric, nebbish creeper but that doesn't make him a molester. I'm POSITIVE I would hate him forever if I had been Soon Yi's adopted mother. I'm shocked this hasn't really brought about huge issues w/ libel and slander.

[ophy]

There's no way Woody will ever sue anybody about this. If he does, the legal discovery process begins and he does NOT want that. But maybe Dylan does? Maybe this is about provoking him into bringing all of it into a court of law so she finally gets a kind of justice.

I've read everything from "she had a major attachment disorder and wasn't capable of true feelings" to her being smart and witty and having a college degree.

All of those statements could be true, you know. Having an attachment disorder does not prevent you from being smart and witty or from getting a college degree. Just saying.

[NeoMaxy]

True. The person I know with RAD is very successful in life. Does well in business, lots of friends (although none super close). As an outsider, you'd never know this person is impossible to connect with for longer than 5 minutes.

[isadora]

Good points, ladies! And I actually meant to say that she had both an attachment disorder and a very low IQ--I wish I could find where I read that but I think Camp Mia floated that one a long time ago, implying that Woody was basically sleeping with a mentally challenged girl with a multitude of issues.

In closing? Woody Allen: Professional Creeper, Probable Pedophile.

As for Sarah's point about suing people? He would be well within his rights to sue the NYT from what I gather. It was kind of a buzz among the journalist community I follow on Twitter. Basically, from what I read, had they printed it as an opinion piece? Probably not a problem. But because of the section they printed it in they left themselves open. The L.A. Times had first dibs and declined to print it (probably because they felt it was legally sketchy ground for them). And the NYT has already said that Allen's team contacted them and that he may issue a written rebuttal that they will print. They were careful to note that "normally we wouldn't but given the deeply personal nature of this story..." but I'm guessing Allen's team could also be like: So, you give us equal time if we want it or we sue you for libel...and the NYT was like: You don't even have to threaten us because all we want are those sweet internet clicks delivered to our website from your scandal, er, I mean, to offer you space to clear the air...

Even if he truly believes he'd be vindicated, I think it would be disastrous PR to sue Dylan. He's played to the court of public opinion very well on this from the beginning (always being sure to not place any blame on her directly).

[LaaLaa]

I have nothing add about the Allen-Farrow battle that hasn't already been said, plus I'm ill-informed. But at least the public has a HINT of what happened there. Bill fucking Cosby! Pretty sure 100% of the people I know have never heard ANY of that and that is fucking insanity.

Looks like Selena Gomez's peeps were looking out after all.

[IssieCol]

Bill Cosby being a gross human being still doesn't make any sense to me. Like, I believe it totally, but my brain just wants to eat Jello pudding and watch Cosby Show reruns. That show was basically my whole childhood. I wonder if Oprah knows.