Diane Keaton and Woody Allen
In the wake of Diane Keaton’s death Woody Allen has been back in the spotlight. Again he’s either been marginalized or badly misrepresented. Allen was a one-time boyfriend of Ms. Keaton and they had remained friends for over fifty years. She was his most valued critic. It was Allen’s Annie Hall (1977) that rocketed Ms. Keaton to fame. For her role in the film she not only won the Best Actress Oscar but became a fashion icon and a beloved superstar. In writing retrospectives of Ms. Keaton people have been unable to avoid mentioning the importance of Annie Hall in Ms. Keaton’s life and Allen’s role as writer, director and co-star.
Manohla Dargis of the New York Times couldn’t help but write about the film in her essay on Ms. Keaton. But she managed to avoid so much as mentioning any of her other roles in Allen films such as Sleeper, Manhattan, Love and Death and Manhattan Murder Mystery. Other writers have been equally circumspect greatly minimizing Allen’s role in both her professional and private life.
Simply put Allen has become a pariah.
There are still jokes about him marrying his daughter, there was one recently on a late night talk show. People still revile him for his marriage to his “daughter.”
However it should be noted that his wife, Soon-Yi is the adopted daughter of the late Andre Previn, not Woody Allen. It should be further noted that Allen played no part in raising Soon-Yi, never lived under the same roof as her and barely had any contact with her. The charges that Allen groomed Soon-Yi have absolutely no factual basis. They are made up.
It is odd that Allen dated the step daughter of his ex-lover, Mia Farrow and the age gap of over thirty years is substantial. But perhaps of greater significance is the fact that they have been happily married for 28 years and have raised two adopted daughters who are quite successful and love their parents as is evident by their Instagram accounts which I follow.
But the real reason for freezing Woody Allen out are the charges of molestation leveled against him by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. People believe her. We have lately been taught to listen to all women, which is unquestionably a good thing. Most people who have listened to Dylan have believed her and assumed that Allen is a child molester. However the facts do not support her contentions. Before proceeding it should be clear that one can believe Dylan’s story and still believe that Woody Allen is innocent. The fact is that there are more witnesses to Dylan being coached by Mia Farrow than there are to any molestation. Indeed there are zero witnesses to any molestation on Allen's part again Dylan or anyone else.
Woody Allen has been cleared by two separate investigations. He passed a lie doctor test. There are no other accusations or hints of pedolphelia against Allen (pedophiles do not just molest once and then retire, they have sickness that is acted our repeatedly). The one act of molestation that Dylan describes could not have happened as she tells it. For one it “happened” in a house full of people who were keeping an eye on Allen. It allegedly took place in a small space that Allen, a claustrophobe, would never have spent a second in, and Dylan describes an electric toy train in a room that had no electrical outlets. (However Mia Farrow’s sister wrote a song years before about an act of molestation taking place in a room with an electric train circling. Coincidence? Unlikely).
It is clear to people who have objectively studied the allegations against Allen that he was framed by Mia Farrow in one of the more contemptible acts ever committed by one celebrity against another. Mia Farrow essentially created traumatic memories in her own adopted daughter just to get revenge against an ex-lover. Despicable. Two of Mia Farrow's adopted children committed suicide and a third died under suspicious circumstances. These three children along with Soon-Yi and Moses Farrow (who back Woody’s side of the story) have something in common: they are people of color. The two adopted children who support Mia Farrow are white.
Oh yes and Mr. Allen is Jewish which undoubtedly plays a part in how he is perceived among bigots who follow the case.
For more on this case see this blog post of mine from a few years back which is quite comprehensive and includes numerous links to other articles, stories, facts and accounts that support Woody Allen. Here is the best of those.
One of the worst aspects of Mia Farrow's vindictiveness is how it has curtailed Woody Allen's film-making career and caused him to be virtually excised as a voice in this country on matters such as Diane Keaton's death, or Tony Roberts' passing before that. He was interviewed but cut from a documentary on the famous Carlye Hotel (he had a few seconds in the DVD extras). Discussions of great directors from the Seventies on no longer include him or his films despite their widespread popularity before Dylan spoke out.
In defending him over the years I've been astounded by how ignorant people are of the true facts of the case and what ridiculous lies are spread by otherwise reasonable people. And many people get incredibly angry when you defend him to the extent that they will say that you must be a supporter of child molestation.
Woody Allen's film restore my faith in humanity. The vicious lies told about him help destroy that faith.
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