Play all audios:
rik6666/VISUAL Press Agency/Visual Press Agency/ZUMA Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free _Mother Jones Daily_. On Saturday,
Nicholas Kristof’s blog at the _New York Times _published an open letter by Dylan Farrow, the adoptive daughter of celebrated filmmaker Woody Allen. The letter describes, in horrifying
detail, sexual assault she claims to have suffered at the hands of Allen—when she was seven years old. As Kristof notes, this is the first time that Farrow has written about this in public.
Here’s an excerpt: > 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. > > […] > > 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. (You can read the rest of her letter—which isn’t
easy to get through—here.) Allen’s representatives did not immediately respond to _Mother Jones_‘ request for comment regarding the letter. I will update this post, if that changes. UPDATE:
Allen’s attorney Elkan Abramowitz sent _Mother Jones _the following statement on Sunday afternoon: > It is tragic that after 20 years a story engineered by a vengeful > lover
resurfaces after it was fully vetted and rejected by > independent authorities. The one to blame for Dylan’s distress is > neither Dylan nor Woody Allen. UPDATE 2: Allen’s publicist
Leslee Dart emails the following on Sunday afternoon: > Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. > He will be responding very soon…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. Accusations of the abuse surfaced in
the early 1990s, shortly after the relationship between Allen and long-time girlfriend Mia Farrow ended after she discovered Allen had been having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted
daughter of Mia Farrow and composer/conductor André Previn. Allen denies the allegations, and has never been prosecuted in this case. Allen and his defenders say that Dylan was coached to
make the allegations by Mia Farrow. Discussion of the alleged assaults was renewed following a recent tribute to Allen at the Golden Globe Awards. UPDATE 3, FEBRUARY 7, 2014, 9:09 P.M. EST:
On Friday, the _New York Times _published Woody Allen’s response online: “Of course, I did not molest Dylan.” UPDATE 4, FEBRUARY 7, 2014, 11:49 P.M. EST: On Friday, Dylan Farrow responded,
in a statement to the _Hollywood Reporter_, to Allen’s piece in the _New York Times_: “His op-ed is the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at
me for the past 20 years.”