Dylan Farrow calls out Hollywood for Woody Allen support in new op-ed

In an op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Woody Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow called out Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet, Blake Lively, and Greta Gerwig for working with Allen amid Farrow’s accusations that the 82-year-old filmmaker molested her as a child in 1992. (Allen has long denied the allegations and was never charged with a crime.)

“We are in the midst of a revolution,” Farrow wrote in the piece, titled “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?” “From allegations against studio heads and journalists, to hotel maids recounting abuses on the job, women are exposing the truth and men are losing their jobs. But the revolution has been selective.”

Farrow cited statements made by Winslet (who stars in Allen’s Wonder Wheel, in theaters now), Lively (who appeared in the director’s film Cafe Society), and Gerwig (who costarred in To Rome With Love) against Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced producer who has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 80 women. (Weinstein has denied allegations of non-consensual sex.) But, she noted, all three women have avoided condemning Allen over her allegations. “Although the culture seems to be shifting rapidly, my allegation is apparently still just too complicated, too difficult, too ‘dangerous,’ to use Lively’s term, to confront,” Farrow wrote.

In the wake of numerous women coming forward against Weinstein, many other prominent men in entertainment and media have been accused of sexual misconduct. On social media, the hashtag #MeToo exploded with millions women and men sharing stories of their own experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault across a wide spectrum of fields. No other allegations of sexual misconduct have been brought against Allen, though the director was criticized for making what some perceived as a sympathetic statement about Weinstein. (Allen later clarified that he thought Weinstein was a “sad, sick man.”)

“I have long maintained that when I was 7 years old, Woody Allen led me into an attic, away from the babysitters who had been instructed never to leave me alone with him. He then sexually assaulted me. I told the truth to the authorities then, and I have been telling it, unaltered, for more than 20 years,” Farrow, who was adopted by actress Mia Farrow in 1985 and then later Allen in 1991, wrote Thursday. “Why is it that Harvey Weinstein and other accused celebrities have been cast out by Hollywood, while Allen recently secured a multimillion-dollar distribution deal with Amazon, greenlit by former Amazon Studios executive Roy Price before he was suspended over sexual misconduct allegations? Allen’s latest feature, Wonder Wheel, was released theatrically on Dec. 1.” (Price has not commented on the sexual harassment allegations against him.)

Allen has repeatedly denied Farrow’s allegations, writing in a 2014 piece published by The New York Times, “Of course, I did not molest Dylan. I loved her and hope one day she will grasp how she has been cheated out of having a loving father and exploited by a mother more interested in her own festering anger than her daughter’s well-being.” Dylan Farrow has denied claims that her mother “planted false memories in my brain.” (She said in 2014, “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.'”)

In his piece from three years ago, Allen cited a report produced by Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital, which wrote, in part, “It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen. Further, we believe that Dylan’s statements on videotape and her statements to us during our evaluation do not refer to actual events that occurred to her on August 4th, 1992,” the date Farrow alleged Allen molested her. During Allen’s custody trial with Mia Farrow in 1993, a child psychiatrist, Dr. Stephen Herman, called the Yale-New Haven report “seriously flawed,” while a psychiatrist testifying on behalf of Allen, Dr. Anne Meltzer, said the study “reached conclusions that were supported well by the data they collected.” But in his decision against Allen in the custody case, Justice Elliott Wilk of the Connecticut State Supreme Court questioned the Yale-New Haven report findings. “I am less certain, however, than is the Yale-New Haven team, that the evidence proves conclusively that there was no sexual abuse,” Justice Wilk wrote, as the New York Times reported in 1993.

Previously, Allen called the 2014 piece his “final word on this entire matter and no one will be responding on my behalf to any further comments on it by any party. Enough people have been hurt.”

Allen had no comment on Dylan Farrow’s op-ed, but his representative Leslee Dart did release the following statement to EW: “Dylan Farrow’s allegations against Woody Allen, which she first made 25 years ago, have been thoroughly examined by law enforcement officials and child welfare investigators. The investigators concluded unambiguously that Dylan Farrow was not sexually abused. No charges were ever filed, and the reason is simple: because Woody Allen is innocent.”