An Open Letter from Dylan Farrow — Page 4

Allen's response on CNN:

The statement released by Allen representative Leslee Dart said: "Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon. In the meantime, it is essential that your coverage make the following facts clear:

"At the time, a thorough investigation was conducted by court appointed independent experts. The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation; that Dylan Farrow had an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality; and that Dylan Farrow had likely been coached by her mother Mia Farrow. No charges were ever filed."


CNN

Updated On: 2/2/14 at 06:45 PM

Mia Farrow is going to win because Woody Allen is going to lose. And let's not pretend this isn't that fight, because it is, and it's going on and on.

The way I look at Dylan's open letter leads me to three possible conclusions:

1) What she claims is true and she is naming her experience;
2) What she claims is what she has come to believe is true and is naming what she believes to be true;
3) What she claims is a lie and she knows she's lying.

I can't ever know. It doesn't matter if "I feel" she is telling the truth or that she is lying. Fortunately, in American justice, there is not currently a number where we can text our votes on whether Allen is guilty or not, because the court of public opinion isn't a real court. And yet so many people feel "informed" enough to hold court on the topic.

I believe the Farrows are campaigning.

The Daily Beast: Not so fast

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"Mia Farrow is going to win because Woody Allen is going to lose. And let's not pretend this isn't that fight, because it is, and it's going on and on."

Or maybe it's the fight of a sexual abuse victim who has been shamed and ignored for 20 years?

Except not really. Ignored means IGNORED. Not heard by ANYONE. The custody battle was fought publicly and the investigation in to the charges was very thorough, and Dylan was definitely heard by the authorities at the time. They did not find reason to believe that she was telling the truth. There was NO physical evidence that she had been victimized.

So here's the question, what does one DO with statements made by the grown up version of a child who was deemed emotionally disturbed at the time and who might have been coached by her furious mother?

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" Regardless of why Dylan wrote the letter, she is a woman in pain."

Not if the abuse didn't happen and she was coached by her mother.

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I just find it strange that over 20 years after the fact, the Farrow (Mia, Ronan, Dylan) family seems to be reliving the allegations at a time when Woody Allen has just been awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, has an Oscar-nominated movie, and an upcoming Broadway musical that looks like a sure-fire hit. Maybe I am cynical but perhaps the generous child support ran out and they are looking for some vengeance. By the way, Woody's adopted son Moses has reconciled with his father and Soon-Yi and claims he was brainwashed by his mother.

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned. Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
William Congreve "The Mourning Bride"

I am not dismissing her letter. I believe she believes the story to be true.

However, that does not mean the story is true.

Interesting fact mentioned in the article I linked, is at the time of the custody battle, Woody passed a lie detector test and Mia Farrow refused to do one.

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Honest question not meant to be seen as combative: why does everyone assume that Mia would coach her daughter to believe that she was sexually abused? Who would want their child to experience that pain?

When I was a young reporter I was covering a custody battle between a woman who had taken off with her daughter rather than let her ex-husband see her. Suddenly there were allegations of child abuse. I believe the girl was around five or six. Turns out the woman actually went underground and at a support rally there were signs that said, "Why would Nicole lie?" Nicole being the daughter.

Well, because break-ups can be horribly messy things and partners do horrible vindictive acts to exact revenge. "Encouraging" a child to tell the truth about what spouse b did to him or her is really not all that uncommon. Every once in a while, what the child is encouraged to say actually happened.

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Updated On: 2/2/14 at 09:46 PM

Is that what should be automatically assumed when it comes to sexual abuse? That the victim could be making it up?

Am I being foolish believing the victim first and foremost?

"Cate Blanchett should be ashamed of herself and I hope she'll lose the Oscar because of this."

So you actually think that an actress who has given the most critically ACCLAIMED and lauded performance of the year (maybe in years) should NOT win the Oscar because she was directed to that performance by Woody Allen?

I fail to understand your logic.

Not to mention Cate's comment about Judy Garland at the Golden Globe's which I thought was tasteless.

"..if Dylan's accusations are true."

At the time of the accusations, the investigators spent a long time looking at this and decided they were not.

And let's be honest, you really seem to want them to be true so that nobody will like Woody Allen.

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