Well, Woody Allen found a new publisher for his book, and while we don’t exactly approve of anyone giving him any money, we are intrigued by what he has to say on certain controversies.
The memoir, titled in the most Woody Allen-ish way Apropos of Nothing, was published in a surprise release on Monday by Arcade Publishing, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing. The company took over after Hachette Book Group dropped the title following very public backlash from Dylan Farrow, who slammed the publisher for hypocrisy — as they also published her brother Ronan Farrow‘s book Catch and Kill, which told the story of his struggle to get the Harvey Weinstein story published.
Related: Harvey Weinstein Reportedly Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Arcade editor Jeannette Seaver released a statement explaining the company’s position, saying:
“In this strange time, when truth is too often dismissed as ‘fake news,’ we as publishers prefer to give voice to a respected artist, rather than bow to those determined to silence him.”
We understand the position we suppose; stopping censorship sometimes means defending awful things. But obviously we can’t in good conscience purchase the book and vote for him with our dollars…
Thankfully, however, many of the biggest excerpts in the 400 page tome have already come out, so we don’t have to! Here are some of the highlights:
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Ronan Farrow COULD Be Frank Sinatra’s Son!
This is the most shocking thing Woody admits in the book.
For years one of the most popular Hollywood conspiracy theories has suggested Ronan is NOT the son of Woody and Mia Farrow but the son of Mia and her ex, Frank Sinatra. No one has the very intimate facts, so the theory is mostly fueled by LOOKING AT THE TWO MEN!
Well, according to Woody, it wasn’t just those eyes that tell the story. He says Mia implied the same thing to him!
“One day Mia announced she was pregnant. I naturally assumed it was by me and the wolfsbane had finally kicked in; and despite her suggesting [Ronan] was Frank Sinatra’s child, I think he’s mine, though I’ll never really know. She may have still been sleeping with Frank, as she hinted, and may have had any number of outside affairs, for all I know. As I said, we lived apart.”
This is one conspiracy theory we don’t mind putting our tin foil fedoras on for.
Woody Says Mia Was Abusive
Wow. This is probably the most controversial thing in the book (since at this point we’re pretty sure everyone takes the Ronan/Frank thing as a given).
Woody makes statements and speculations about Mia which both state outright she was abusive — and seem to suggest worse!
He alleges the Rosemary’s Baby actress frequently hit Soon-Yi. He says in general she treated her many adopted children like “toys,” even returning two:
“She had once flown to Texas with Soon-Yi to adopt a Mexican infant but sent him back after a few days in her New York apartment for reasons known only to her. I also recall her adopting a little spina bifida boy who lived in the apartment for several weeks, but her son Fletcher found him annoying, so he was sent back.”
Allen adds:
“If there were other kids she adopted and returned I have no idea — as I said, I lived on the other side of the park.”
Woody claims Mia adored “the saintly reputation, the admiring publicity” of adopting orphans “but she didn’t like raising the kids and didn’t really look after them.”
But the child he says she did look after, he implies she mothered too closely. He says she was “unnaturally obsessed” with baby Ronan, who was originally born with the name Satchel. He writes:
“She took him into her bedroom, her bed, and insisted on breast-feeding him. She kept telling me she intended to do it for years, and that anthropological studies have shown positive results from tribes where breast-feeding goes on much longer than on the Upper West Side. Years later, two very professional and perceptive women who worked in Mia’s house, Sandy Boluch and Judy Hollister, the first as babysitter and the second as housekeeper, described numerous incidents. Sandy reports seeing Mia sometimes sleeping in the nude with Satchel (now Ronan) a number of times till he was eleven years old. I don’t know what the anthropologists would say about that, but I can imagine what the guys in the poolroom would say.”
Woody says Mia was odd about Dylan from the moment she was born, telling him he could never sleep in her home again and demanding he give back his key to the apartment. He says it was because she stated he “should not get too close to the baby.” He seems to assume this demand was about her eccentricities and not because of what she already thought about him. Interesting.
The implication goes beyond what he witnessed. He also paints a not-so-subtle picture of his ex.
Woody makes a point of telling readers what he’s heard about her past, saying the Farrow family was “rife with extremely ominous behavior that swelled in the years I knew her.” He says he heard a rumor her brothers had been “aggressive” with her and that “the Farrow brother who is now serving years in prison for child molestation has said that their father had molested him.”
He’s referring to John Charles Villiers-Farrow, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2013.
Woody writes about missing the “red flags” when he met Mia:
“I was amazed how she could grow up tiptoeing through that minefield of craziness and come out charming, productive, likable, and unscathed. But she hadn’t been unscathed, and I should’ve been more alert.”
Is he implying Mia was the one who was molested? And that she was taking something out on him?? More on that later…
On The Soon-Yi Affair
Woody says the relationship with Mia was basically over by the time he began an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who was at the time 20 years old — while he was 54! He recalls:
“At the very early stages of our new relationship, when lust reigns supreme… we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
OK, could have done without that mental image.
On Mia’s reaction to discovering the affair, when she found some nude photos of Soon-Yi in his apartment (the two were already living separately), Woody is surprisingly sympathetic:
“Of course I understand her shock, her dismay, her rage, everything. It was the correct reaction.”
Obviously his sympathy doesn’t extend to the alleged coaching of little Dylan, which he believes is all part of the reaction to Soon-Yi. But even under that mind-set, Woody says he would go through with the affair all over again:
“Sometimes, when the going got rough and I was maligned everywhere, I was asked if I had known the outcome, do I ever wish I never took up with Soon-Yi? I always answered I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
The couple have been together and (apparently) happy for three decades now.
On Dylan’s Accusations
Woody still maintains the accusations he molested Dylan were made up by Mia as part of her “Ahab-like quest” for revenge over Soon-Yi, something backed up by Mia’s son Moses Farrow. In the book he declares his innocence once again, writing:
“I never laid a finger on Dylan, never did anything to her that could be even misconstrued as abusing her; it was a total fabrication from start to finish.”
He recalls the day in question, and even putting his head on his 7-year-old daughter’s lap. However, he says:
“I certainly didn’t do anything improper to her. I was in a room full of people watching TV mid-afternoon.”
We don’t imagine his story will ever change on the subject.
However, his suggestion of Mia’s complicity is given even more detail in the book. He talks about how singer Dory Previn, the ex-wife of Mia’s previous ex Andre Previn, warned him about her. He says the singer/songwriter told him Mia loved her song about child molestation, Daddy in the Attic:
“She told me Mia would sing it, and she was certain that’s what gave Mia the idea to locate a fake molestation accusation she would make in the attic.”
So much of that is disturbing, not the least of which is the song itself.
Well, that was all a fascinating read, but we certainly are glad we didn’t spend a dime on any of it. Yeesh.
BTW, neither Mia nor Dylan have yet commented on all this, but a source close to the Farrow family told the NY Post:
“The family’s not going to comment on yet another rehash of Woody Allen’s lies that attempt to deflect him fro credible allegations of abuse backed up by court decisions, evidence, witnesses, and Dylan’s first-hand, unwavering account.”
What do YOU think of Woody’s new accusations and defensive arguments??
[Image via KIKA/MGM/Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.]
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