Woody Allen calls documentary accusing him of child abuse a 'hatchet job'
US director Woody Allen. AFP
Gulf Today Report
Disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn have trashed HBO's new "Allen v. Farrow" documentary series, which argues that Allen abused his then-adoptive 7-year-old daughter Dylan Farrow.
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“Allen v. Farrow,” which premiered in the US on February 21, features Dylan Farrow alleging in detail that Allen molested her when she was a child.
The documentary features unprecedented testimonies by Farrow, now 35, and her family, including her brother Ronan and their mother Mia Farrow, says The Tribune News Service.
Mia and Allen were married from 1980 until 1992.
Allen has categorically denied the allegations, which Farrow first made in 1992.
The “Café Society” filmmaker has always claimed that his daughter was “coached” by Farrow to make the abuse claims, after his former wife discovered he was having an affair with her adoptive daughter Soon-Yi.
Allen's controversial relationship with Soon-Yi, which began when he was 57 and she was 21, also comes under the lens in the scandalous project. The pair went on to marry each other in December 1997.
Soon-Yi is the adopted daughter of actress Mia Farrow and composer André Previn, whom Farrow married before dating Allen.
Allen and Soon-Yi released a joint statement this week, slamming the four-part investigative series as a "shoddy hit piece" and a "hatchet job riddled with falsehoods."
"These documentarians had no interest in the truth. Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods,” the statement reads.
It continues: “As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place.
“It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO — which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts."
"I told the truth to the authorities then, and I have been telling it, unaltered, for more than 20 years," Dylan Farrow wrote in a 2017 op-ed for The Times.
"Allen's pattern of inappropriate behaviour — putting his thumb in my mouth, climbing into bed with me in his underwear, constant grooming and touching — was witnessed by friends and family members," Farrow added.
"It is a testament to Allen's public relations team and his lawyers that few know these simple facts. It also speaks to the forces that have historically protected men like Allen: the money and power deployed to make the simple complicated, to massage the story."
