Ronan Farrow is not happy that his publisher is also putting out Woody Allen's memoir
Aux Features Books
Recently, Grand Central Publishing announced that it had picked up the rights to Woody Allen’s unpublished memoir Apropos Of Nothing, which it’s not planning to release on April 7. The book, which Grand Central has apparently been sitting on for a year after no other publisher would touch it, is apparently a “comprehensive account of his life, both personal and professional.” As it turns out, Grand Central is a division of Hachette Book Group, the publisher that released Ronan Farrow’s Catch And Kill last year, and he seems very unhappy that his own publisher decided to put out his father’s book despite, you know, everything. (If you need a refresher: Farrow’s sister Dylan has maintained for decades that Allen sexually abused her when she was a child, and Farrow’s book is literally about powerful Hollywood men dodging sexual assault allegations, so it’s a little baffling that Hachette was willing to put out Allen’s book.)
Today, Farrow posted a statement on social media saying he was “disappointed” to learn that Hachette was putting out Allen’s book and that it “concealed the decision” from both him and the Hachette employees who worked with him on Catch And Kill. Dylan Farrow also says she was never contacted by fact checkers from Hachette to verify anything in Allen’s book, leading Ronan Farrow to accuse the publisher of not bothering to fact-check it at all. He says the decision to publish the book is “wildly unprofessional” and shows a “lack of ethics and compassion” for victims of sexual abuse. He also says that he informed Hachette that he can’t “in good conscience” work with a publisher that would do something like this.
80 Comments
But by me talking about it gives it more press than ever. It’s not like Woody hits the talk show circuit, me talking about it probably sells 100K copies. It makes my company more money, this disgusts me. I went to my boss, he said he was sorry, and he completely understood and supported my decision to voice my disgust.
Are you having a stroke?
Defends a pedophile, has another pedophile in his username. Checks out.
While Ronan’s sex offender based career was a foregone conclusion, it is my understanding Woody has never been convicted. Also have first hand knowledge that women do some messed up stuff in custody battles regardless of emotional harm on children. And none of us were there. If you don’t see the irony of this marketing coupe for publisher, I suppose maybe I did have a stroke.
This just in, OJ didn’t do it
Defending possible child rapist Woody Allen is going to get back at your ex-wife who I’m sure you were definitely not a piece of shit towards, dude.
That’s the title he went with? “The Early Funny Ones” was right there.
“Everything You Wanted To Ask About Sex But Were Afraid To Know” “… And Such Small Portions”
Take the Money and RunTo Ronan With LoveTiny AphroditeSweet and LowdownYou Will Meet a Short, Pale KvetcherHollywood Career EndingDon’t Drink the Water Woody Hands You
Ronan Farrow’s picture there definitely looks like an audition for a Bond villain.(“I dunno, a villain who is obsessed with the History Channel?” – Purvis and Wade, probably) Should’ve run a screenshot from him on Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt!
Why has everybody forgotten what a head-case Mia Farrow Sinatra Previn is, as well as her whole family? That brother John Villiers Farrow is currently serving time in Maryland for . . . child molestation. Dear Prudence’s cultish devotion to that great fraud, the Maharishi (Sexy Sadie) followed by her extramarital affair with millionaire serial killer Robert Durst. The answer is that Mia’s most ardent supporters weren’t alive to observe her in her prime. Stalking and entrapping Old Blue Eyes at seventeen, and later Andre Previn, husband of her friend songwriter Dory Previn — who had a breakdown and attempted suicide (Beware of Pretty Girls). Nobody seems to be paying attention to Moses and Soon Yi’s accounts of a domicile that, far from being a nurturing, loving home, resembled Lowood Hall in Jane Eyre. Unfortunately three of the adoptees can’t join in, since they’re dead, overdoses, likely suicides. In this context, all of her conspicuous ‘good deeds’, seem like a guilty Catholic’s penance, or what psychiatrists would call ‘undoing’, a ‘primitive’ defense employed by immature, dramatic Cluster B personality disorders (Borderline/Histrionic/Narcissistic/Antisocial).Does anyone recall that Mia described Soon Yi, who hold advanced degrees from Columbia, as ‘retarded’ and suggested that Rowan was possibly the Chairman of the Board’s son while Barbara Sinatra very much alive?Woody Allen took a polygraph (something Mia never did), and was cleared by a board of Yale psychiatrists who were convinced Dylan/Malone had been coached. And I suspect the coaching went on long after that, so that it became her truth. Either that or she still just trying to say things to win her mean stepmother’s love. And I don’t believe for a moment that Rowan is either Frank Sinatra’s or Woody Allen’s son. He has neither the pipes nor the wit. If I were him and wanted to find out who my daddy was, my short-list would include the doorman, the gardener, the chauffeur.
Ah yes but you forget that the commentariat has already decided, the trial’s been had, the verdict pre-agreed, the punishment is… the punishment… well that’s still beyond their grasp, and that impotence makes them rage.
You seem so angry that people made up their minds about a man that married his daughter, but also angry that they haven’t punished that man. Maybe the “people,” whom you conveniently group together as a monolith you can find hypocritical by cherry picking ideas not all hold, aren’t as hypocritical as you are.
You seem to have a weird definition of angry.
When did Woody marry his daughter? I must have missed that. He married his ex-girlfriend’s adopted daughter. Hardly the same thing. Or even close to the same thing.
When did Woody marry his daughter?December 23, 1997In Venice, Italy. They had to get married there because the laws there are more lax on marrying your kids’ sister than the laws in NY.
Well, seeing as how the woman he married in 1997 was not his daughter, but his ex-girlfriend’s adopted daughter, I don’t think there were any legal issues.
The woman he married is now both his children’s sister and their step-mother.His sons are also his brothers-in-law.His daughter, the one he put his fingers into her vagina when she was 8 years old, is also his sister-in-law.His kids’ mom is also his mom, as in mother-in-law.That’s incest. I mean, I’m sure he could hire a lawyer sleazy enough to argue it possibly isn’t if you squint a lot and look at NYS penal code in just the right way, but he still didn’t want to take that chance and high-tailed it to Italy to get married to his kids’ sister… so he could adopt more vulnerable little girls and have them hang out with Jeffrey Epstein.
Wow…OK. Let me explain it simply for you.
Mia Farrow and Andre Previn adopted Soon-Yi Previn. She is their adopted daughter.
Woody and Mia dated—never lived together, but dated.
And then they broke up.
Woody dated and then married Soon-Yi.
Literally the worst you can say about the whole thing is that Woody dated a mom and her (adopted) daughter at different times.
Let me explain it to you very simply. Mia Farrow and Andre Previn were in the process of adopting Soon-Yi when they divorced. When Soon-Yi’s adoption was finalized, when she was 6 years old, Previn and Farrow were divorced. Previn is her legal father. But the father in the household she grew up in was Woody Allen. From the time she was 7 to today, right now this minute, Woody Allen is the man who, with her mother, raised her and her siblings:Few married couples seem more married. They are constantly in touch with each other, and not many fathers spend as much time with their children as Allen does. He is there before they wake up in the morning, he sees them during the day and he helps put them to bed at night. As each has been married and divorced twice, experience has taught them that legalizing a relationship doesn’t necessarily make it last, and Mia Farrow is fond of quoting a joke about the much-married Alan Jay Lerner: “Marriage is Alan’s way of saying good-bye.” February 24, 1991 https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/24/magazine/woody-and-mia-a-new-york-story.html
Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were uber rich people with several fabulous homes and vacation properties which they all used as a family. Woody Allen owned one while Farrow (and her mother) owned the rest. They 100% lived together. Soon-Yi even complained in her interview about having to iron the sheets for Woody and Mia’s bed when she was a kid.
Woody Allen didn’t “date” a mother and daughter at different times. Woody Allen was in a long-term relationship and had children with a woman then started fucking her daughter behind her back while carrying on his role as father in the household. Then when that woman dumped him, he estranged the daughter from her family and got her to agree to adopt more daughters with him.
Wow, dude. You’re waaaay too vested in other peoples’ personal lives. Woody and Soon-Yi were in no way related to each other, and now they have been happily married for several decades. Whatever your apparently personal grudge against Woody Allen is, you may want to let it go.
I’m just here shutting down the bullshit disinformation losers like you attempt to spread every time Woody Allen rears his ugly head. in no way related to each otherSoon-Yi is both his children’s sister and their step-mother.His sons are also his brothers-in-law.His daughter, the one he put his fingers into her vagina when she was 8 years old, is also his sister-in-law.His kids’ mom is also his mom, as in mother-in-law.That’s related, dude.they have been happily married for several decadesWarren Jeffs and his many wives were also “happily married” for decades, too. That’s what happens when predators groom damaged children and isolated them.
personal grudge There’s no grudge. Facts don’t hold a grudge. The facts are against Woody Allen because he is a genuine shitbag, not because anyone holds a grudge against poor little Woody.
Soon Yi was not Woody Allen’s daughter. She was Andre Previn’s daughter.
I can’t make heads or tails of the Woody Allen thing. Mia Farrow is clearly insane. Woody Allen has done some bafflingly insane things. Dylan and Ronan keep repeating the same insane lines. Soon Yi and Moses claim all sorts of insanity in that household.
I frankly have no idea if Allen molested his daughter. The whole thing is so messy and filled with ugly stories on every side. A lot of these cases are relatively clean cut, but this one makes no sense. One thing that stands out is that Allen seems to have no pattern of abuse. His courtship of Soon-Yi is completely crazy and slightly disturbing, but it was never illegal. The idea as well that Allen would abuse his daughter just once, in the middle of an ugly custody case and seemingly never do anything like this before or since. (It’s noteworthy that neither the Farrows nor anyone else has any other concrete instances of Allen doing something additionally that approaches sexual misconduct). But then you read some of the weird things about Dylan’s state after the supposed abuse and it’s…it’s incredibly troubling.
So I have no idea. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. It just makes no sense and it never will.
I mean if you don’t think grooming a teenager to become your child bride isn’t abuse than I dunno
Yeah, a 17-y-0 “stalking and entrapping” an adult is not a thing. Adults have a responsibility to behave like fucking adults. Seventeen year olds don’t, because they are still legally children, and as a practical matter they have low impulse control and their brains aren’t yet fully formed. That’s why there are laws about this shit.
“Yeah, a 17-y-0 “stalking and entrapping” an adult is not a thing.”Tell that to my grandmother. She set her sights on Grandpa, got pregnant by him and then got married at 17 – which was under age in Iowa at the time. Grandpa was an adult at the time (he was all of 18, sure, but still legally an adult). So, just on the basis of family history, you’re quite simply wrong.By the way, you do know that people sometimes lie about their age, have fake IDs indicating an age greater than their current calendar age and just generally can act to deceive others for their personal advantage, right? Sure, Farrow was 17 at the time she pursued Sinatra. Did he know that? Did she tell him she was 17, or did she claim to be older? With all of the advantages society grants to legal adults (those 18+ years old) persons under that age do have an incentive to fudge reality in order to enjoy those advantages – which you would know if you had bothered to spend even a split second thinking about the issue instead of reflexively spewing your moral outrage all over the place.And on a side note, the age of consent in New York (where I assume this “stalking and entrapping” occurred) is 17. I don’t know if that was the case when Farrow pursued Sinatra, but I’m going to figure it probably was. So, for purposes of consenting to sexual activity, Farrow was an adult at the time. So, while there are indeed “laws about this shit” you seem to have no idea what those laws actually are. You might want to acquaint yourself with them.
Since you took the time to write a long response, I want to ask you in return to please think about your “family history.” Who framed the narrative that way? Whose version of the story are you taking as gospel? I don’t know if this is your paternal or maternal grandmother, but let’s just say for the purposes of discussion it’s the former. Does Dad maybe have some anger towards Grandma that he hasn’t worked out? These anonymous comment boards allow us to be really hostile to each other, but I am not trying to do that. I seriously want you to think about whether you, yourself have a kneejerk reaction to what women say, and if so, think about why. We each have our separate understanding of events, and to each of us, that version seems the most authentic and valid. I have a hard time believing Grandma saw things the way you tell it—or that if what you’re presenting is her version, it was anything more than a joke she told to simplify things that felt complicated and scary to her when she was a child of 17, when she may have taken actions without fully understanding the consequences. And that is certainly not to say that things did not also feel complicated and scary to Grandpa when he was a near-child of 18, and perhaps also acted quickly and/or rashly.
Hence why I said woody Allen has done bafflingly insane things. Nothing he did with Soon-Yi was illegal. Just incredibly bizarre.
I think we can go past “bizarre” and straight to “predatory”.
Sure. Their relationship is all kinds of messed up. As I said, I’m not certain what happened with Dylan. There’s as much indication that she was coached as there is evidence that he did it. It’s far too messed up on every side to make sense of it.I particularly come back to the idea that Mia Farrow casually had an affair with the married Sinatra while dating Allen. Whatever the Farrow/Allen relationship was, that certainly wasn’t healthy.
What gets lost here is that Allen was investigated and the weight of the evidence including the opinion of experts was that Dylan was not abused. We know that children can be coached into believing things that never happened. The experts in the Woody Allen case concluded that that is what happened there.
Which experts are we talking about? The child psychologist who was treating Allen for “inappropriate behavior” with Dylan before he molested her? The judge in the custody case? The prosecutor and state attorney who said they had a case against Allen but it would harm Dylan too much to go forward?
The.
Why do you keep providing links as if it’s evidence of the fact that Allen was clearly set up, when literally none of the links have anything to do with the case? And then when people come at you with direct evidence of things that happened in the case, you just ignore it.
I posted two linked. One to support the proposition that children can be and often are manipulated into believing things that never happened.And, two the link answering the question “which experts.” The answer to that is a group of Yale doctors and social workers who concluded that Dylan was not abused and insinuated that she had been manipulated to believe something that wasn’t true. I’ll go with the experts on this one. But it’s also worth noting that some of Dylan’s siblings who were there on the day of the event deny that Woody was even there and have stated that their mother was an abusive monster. Who’s telling the truth? Don’t know. Have no way of knowing. So I’ll trust the experts who examined the case. Ca
Oh yeah, where the guy who wrote the report had never even spoken with Dylan. Sorry, I’m going to have to go with team literally everyone else.
One thing that stands out is that Allen seems to have no pattern of abuse.
Well, this isn’t abuse per se, but he does seem to have a history of…less than moral behavior. I’m vague on the details, but its my understanding he tried to peruse a relationship with Mariel Hemmingway during the making of “Manhattan.” Or something to that extent.That whole movie doesn’t cast him in a good light based on what we see now.
after the movie, when she turned 18. but…the movie depicts him dating her when she’s 17, so…
Woody is certainly prone to bizarre tendencies. I can never fully discount accusations against him. But aside from that, none of the countless women he’s worked with have ever said he even so much as looked at them.
Yeah he isn’t interested in women. How about the girls he has worked with, like Mariel Hemmingway?
Heads: Woody Allen is a chi-mo creep that for decades made a slew of films about wanting to fuck teenagers Tails: he molested his daughter, he married another daughter, and his own son speaks about a monster he is regularly
For what it’s worth, his other adopted son Moses now speaks glowingly of Allen and bags Mia whenever he can. The whole thing is just a mess.
Allen is the fucking mess. Piece of shit fucks kids. It’s not complicated or even a fucking secret: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/woody-allens-secret-teen-lover-manhattan-muse-speaks-1169782
Created an account just for this screed?Enjoy that check.
Holy shit gadflyonthewall is Woody Allen!
I guess good we got the requisite misogynistic screed from a pedo supporter out of the way early?
I think it’s reasonable to point out Mia Farrow’s past actions and her potential influence over Dylan, but“Stalking and entrapping Old Blue Eyes at seventeen”Are you fucking kidding me with that? A 49 year-old Frank Sinatra does not have agency? Are you fucking nuts? Do young girls “prey” on older men in your world?
Yes. gadflyonthewall created this account to post this screed, he is… WOODY ALLEN!
I think everyone is well aware that Mia Farrow is a bit of a nut, but whatever small shred of credibility you had was gone at “Stalking and entrapping Old Blue Eyes at seventeen.” Grow the fuck up. He was a creep who got with a SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD.I don’t think I’ve ever said this before except under layers and layers of irony, but for once, just this once, I get to say it fully sincerely:Ok, boomer.
Bitch Be Crazy is the defense of many a misogynist. You’re an idiot.
Hi Woody.
So Woody Allen isn’t a chi-mo bc Dory Previn wrote a song, uh huh, ok
“And I don’t believe for a moment that Rowan is either Frank Sinatra’s or
Woody Allen’s son. He has neither the pipes nor the wit. If I were him
and wanted to find out who my daddy was, my short-list would include the
doorman, the gardener, the chauffeur.”
Little did we know, fellas, guy on the Internet is on the case. This language earns you the nomination of “go fuck your dumb mouth with steel wool” award for the “is not a clone of his father” category. Also, bang up job calling Mia Ferrow a whore. How long have you known each other? Do you get coffee on Tuesdays or was it Thursdays, I can’t remember where this deeply educated opinion of folks’ mindset comes from – I thought it was weekly coffee.Your entire post just wreaks of “I know nothing, but a long post calling Mia Farrow a whore, Dylan Farrow a liar for the last THREE FUCKING DECADES, and by the way, Ronan is probably a literal talentless bastard.”In closing, you’re full of shit. Woody Allen marrying his adopted daughter is the biggest red flag of “by the way!I’m a piece of shit!” in history. But Ronan’s a talentless bastard. I keep forgetting how close you are to him. Damning stuff.
Who published Lolita? Aren’t they still in business?Joking aside, couldn’t Woody Allen have published it himself?
I suspect Woody Allen just wanted the money. He sold the publishing rights, cashed the check, now they can publish it or not.I don’t think it’s Allen trying to right a wrong or probably even addressing the allegations in great detail.
Allen was likely more interested in grasping prestige and defending his legacy. Money, he’s got. The rest though, that’s over.
I really appreciate the work that Ronan is doing and stand with him on this 100%.
Me too. Great respect for Ronan Farrow and all that he’s involved with. But man is he Bond villain-level creepy looking.
In 20 years, maybe. Bond villains are almost never younger or younger-looking than Bond, because the male fantasy must be preserved.
Rami Malek looks younger than Daniel Craig to me.
Also, Walken vs. Mooregranted, laylowmoe said almost.
This is interesting because it has no basis in reality. Bond villains are all over the place in age. Christopher Walken looked much younger than Roger Moore, Robert Davi looked (and was) younger than Timothy Dalton, Yaphet Kotto was younger than Roger Moore. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond went against Robert Carlyle, Sophie Marceau and Toby Stephens – all of whom look anywhere from “somewhat” to “significantly” younger than he did at the time. Sean Bean is younger but looks roughly the same age, which made sense because they’re supposed to be contemporaries. Daniel Craig’s Bond tends to be paired against people his own age, though Mathieu Amalric was styled to be younger (he’s not). There’s no rule that Bond villains must be an older man for the sake of a male fantasy, especially since there’s just as much of a ‘male fantasy’ surrounding the idea of an older man showing the younger whipper snappers who’s the boss.The only Bond villain that is reliably older is Blofeld, and even then the most recent Bond narrowed the age gap between the two significantly.
He looks like somebody tried to will Patrick Bateman into existence.
Botox mistakes and hairstyle mistakes. It’s unfortunate because he’s doing good work and also happens to be naturally good-looking.
I follow his instagram and….disagree with this take. He’s almost alarmingly good-looking. I also am a full “he’s obviously Sinatra’s son” weirdo even though I think that’s been debunked because seriously, just LOOK at him! It seems impossible that he’s NOT Sinatra’s son. Not that it matters. I’ll see myself out.
While I admire him for diligently exposing the Weinstein’s of the world….is Ronan now the final arbiter of what can and can’t be published?Frankly, fuck him, I’d prefer the opportunity to choose whether or not to read the book and make my own judgments.
Yes, clearly that’s what he’s advocating for. Lol
Not really the point he’s driving at.
It seems disingenuous to get mad that nobody is fact checking a memoir. You cant ‘fact check’ someone’s own life story for anything other than things in the public record
Yeah, it would kill the tell-all memoir business if they had to be fact checked like that. Everyone would just deny anything that painted them in a negative light.
there is an illustration of Jane Austen that is Natalie Portman when she was young there is a photograph of Natalie Portman as an adult that looks like the illustration and is Marion Cotillard if you want someone to walk up to Marion Cotillard and shoot her in the head Mr. Farrow why don’t you do it yourself
“We’re gonna sell it as a two-pack, literary battle of the CENTURY baby!”
What I most enjoy about stories involving Woody Allen is how much they bring out the best in all AV Club commenters.
MASSIVE typo in the first sentence of this article that essentially negates everything that follows.
…so it’s a little baffling that Hachette was willing to put out Allen’s book.Is it? Right or wrong, and however you feel about everyone involved in this, Hachette is a business. I’m sure they only care about being able to pick up a book on the cheap because no one else wanted it and presumably make money off of it. I doubt they’re required to tell anyone about any other deals and it may even be a privacy issue.Not fact-checking the book depending on what is in it is another story.
these publishers are making me angry!
I think it cheapens #metoo to drag this clearly unrelated story into it, but people keep doing that
Honestly, fuck Woody Allen. He made 20 good flicks out of what like 50? at least 25 of his films are utter dog shit. So even his contribution to film is a net negative.
I believe Moses and Soon-Yi. Even Ronan can’t find corroborating evidence to the accusations. He only believes his white sister over his Asian siblings concerning the facts of a custody battle that happened when he was 2. That said, he has the right to work with whomever he wants to work with and he’s been doing great work outing sexual predators.