Woody Allen Keeps Digging, Ctd

We’ve been airing a lot of pain and trauma lately in discussing the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow-Dylan Farrow agony, and I’ve tried to keep the debate as open as possible (although my bias lies with those alleging childhood molestation, and not against). But we just got this email from a longtime emailer and Dishhead (she calls herself an “old broad”) who adds some moxie to the defense of Woody:

Sure, Woody Allen’s response is full of anger. But it’s a good thing, for which I don’t blame him in the slightest. There’s no point in writing a rebuttal that sounds phony. He’s pissed off.  It’s hard to imagine how hurtful, humiliating, and confusing it is to be accused of such a dreadful crime. I don’t believe he did it, which isn’t to say that I know a damn thing. But do I blame the man for not being at his best at this moment? Absolutely not.

And the pearl clutching is annoying as hell.  Is he self-absorbed and childish? Of course. His movies have reflected this for decades. Is he a pedophile? I simply don’t know and likely never will!  Is what happened with Soon-Yi Previn anything to gloat about? Evidently not – but one thing I don’t see discussed here is that this doesn’t sound like a family unit as much as it does a social experiment that went horribly wrong because no one was really committed to anything.

I think the three Farrows, including the young lady, have handled this in a most unserious way. That damages their ability to convince “to these aged eyes.” I’m still seething, really, that the NYT Edit Board and Kristof will most likely get away with this stunt.

Two serious lapses in judgment on the paper’s part (if you count Bill Keiler’s strange swerve) in very short order. Identity crisis on their part? Inability to comprehend what blogging really means and amounts to? Who knows – but shame on them! Kristof, in particular, owes his readers an explanation beyond the weak sauce he used as intro to the Open Letter.  Maybe the Dish staff can offer intervention services and teach them a thing or two.

I think journalists not wishing to get into the he said-she said quicksand are being way too lenient in not pointing out the larger issue here and it has nothing to do with childhood sexual abuse.

If Dylan Farrow wants to pursue this by whatever legal means are still available to her, more power to her. But, if not, learn to make your case with a minimum of grace and dignity – stop asking Mommy’s friends to move over so that you can vent in public, and stop with all the windblown drama. To her family members: cut out the tweets and snark and the other sophomoric BS.  If my child had been abused and sexually molested, I sure as hell wouldn’t be trying to punk the perpetrator via tweets on a Sunday night while babbling about getting ice-cream and switching over to Girls! Nor would I have dropped the case over 20 years ago. Being coy and a total bitch about the paternity of Ronan (ick!) is also not so smart if the aim is to spearhead a worthy cause on your daughter’s behalf.

I resent, as an old broad who knows a thing or two about something or other, being told that unless I side with the alleged victim here I am somehow a proponent of “rape culture.” We have lots of problems in this country, for sure, but this isn’t Pakistan or Afghanistan. Want your claim to be taken seriously? Pursue it like a grown-up. Or, really, hate to say it, but deal with it in private and STFU about in public.

These women with their outrage have lost me. This isn’t feminism in my book. It’s media lynch mob justice. In other news, Blue Jasmine wears even less well on a third viewing. The San Francisco he creates is truly truly bizarre and Cate Blanchett, so talented, succeeds in giving a Meryl Streep at her most technically gifted and hollow performance. Watch Hollywood tell Mia to get over herself and shower the damn flick with every possible award.