BBC: Woody Allen 'sad' for producer (Harvey Weinstein) over sexual assault allegation

[Princess Turandot]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41626750

"No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness," Allen told the BBC. "And they wouldn't, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie. But you do hear a million fanciful rumours all the time. And some turn out to be true and some - many - are just stories about this actress, or that actor."

"The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved," he added. "Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that is life is so messed up...."

(snip)

Allen said he hoped the revelations, which emerged after an investigation by the New York Times, would lead to "some amelioration", but said: "You also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either.

"But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation."

Getty images

The article also notes:

Weinstein has been credited with reviving Allen's career after Allen was accused of abusing Dylan Farrow, his daughter with actress Mia Farrow.

Underlining added.

He appears to be the first well known person concerned about a groundswell of fake accusations in an industry where the 'winking' was aimed at the abuse, not some 'virtuous' and 'powerless' studio head.

[RelativelyJones]

1. Gross Harvey. Gross Woody.

Last edited Sun Oct 15, 2017, 04:45 PM - Edit history (2)

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

12. Wish I could laugh, but, sorry, situation is so not funny.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. While I can understand why Woody Allen felt compelled to say something

(because his son is the reporter who broke the story, Ronan Farrow), he was better off not saying anything.

[brush]

4. Are we sure Ronan Farrow is Allen's son? He sure looks like Frank Sinatra.

[milestogo]

5. He looks like his mother, Mia Farrow. He has the brains of his father, Woody Allen.

Ronan Farrow is brilliant. Woody Allen is brilliant. The Mia Farrow-Frank Sinatra affair was over decades before Ronan Farrow was born.

[brush]

6. Looks like Sinatra to me.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Quite a likeness. He looks like a combo of Frank and Mia.

He looks nothing like Woody. Lucky for him. He is a gorgeous young man.

[Tatiana]

37. I think Sinatra is the father, too.

There is a clear resemblance, especially around the mouth.

[JI7]

41. Agree. The features are much more Sinatra than Farrow

And nothing like allen.

[Tanuki]

11. I think he resembles the Farrows, including his mother and his grandfather

John Villiers Farrow.

[Dave Starsky]

14. Ronan Farrow would like you to go with him somewhere.

Anyone who thinks Ronan Farrow ISN'T a dead ringer for Old Blue Eyes are thinking of fatter, older Frank. He was young once.

[eleny]

20. I remember when Sinatra was way younger and Ronan is a dead ringer

[andym]

35. More pics of Ronan's grandfather-- a doppelganger

Last edited Sun Oct 15, 2017, 07:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Here are some younger pics of Ronan's grandfather-- strong resemblance.

[JI7]

42. He looks way more like Sinatra

[andym]

44. Not to me. Would be interestng to see what others think.

[Ilsa]

46. He looks like his relative on the right. The nose,

Lips, and chin are Farrow's. So is the face shape.

[Ilsa]

45. Thank you. That's who he resembles.

Love Ronan. I think he might look nice with a beard, too.

[former9thward]

16. In 2013 Mia Farrow said Sinatra was "possibly" the father of Ronan.

https://web.archive.org/web/20131002065230/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/10/mia-farrow-children-family-scandal

[NNadir]

21. Ronan Farrow is much smarter, much more impressive than Woody Allen ever was. Allen's intellect...

...is somewhat over rated, and his affectations about intellect are fairly pretentious in any case.

I have never thought of Ms. Farrow, Ronan's mother, as an intellectual lightweight.

While I enjoyed Allen's movies when I was young - and was in fact a fan - now that I'm older and better educated, when I've seen them again, I've been less than impressed.

On retrospect some of these movies, Manhattan comes to mind actually end up being quite disturbing in light of subsequent events.

Farrow, by contrast, is a very, very, very impressive young man, far deeper, far brighter and in many ways more accomplished, in a human being kind of way than Allen.

Allen makes movies about his angst in getting laid.

Farrow by contrast, works for humanity.

From Farrow's Wikipedia Biography:

Public service[edit]
From 2001 to 2009, he was a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth,[13] acting as an "advocate" for children and women caught up in the ongoing crisis in Sudan's Darfur region [14] and assisting in fundraising and addressing United Nations affiliated groups in the United States.[14][15] During this time, he also made joint trips to the Darfur region of Sudan with his mother, the actress Mia Farrow, who is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.[16] He subsequently advocated for the protection of Darfuri refugees.[11] Following on his experiences in Sudan, Farrow was affiliated with the Genocide Intervention Network.[17]

During his time at Yale Law School, Farrow interned at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell and in the office of the chief counsel at the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, focusing on international human rights law.[11][18][19]

In 2009, Farrow joined the Obama administration as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.[11][20][21] He was part of a team of officials recruited by the diplomat Richard Holbrooke,[22] for whom Farrow had previously worked as a speechwriter.[23] For the next two years, Farrow was responsible for "overseeing the U.S. Government's relationships with civil society and nongovernmental actors" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[11][20]

In 2011, Farrow was appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues[24] and Director of the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues.[11] The office's creation was the outcome of a multi-year task-force appointed by Clinton to review the United States' economic and social policies on youth,[25] for which Farrow co-chaired the working group with senior USAID staff member David Barth beginning in 2010.[26][27] Farrow's appointment and the creation of the office were announced by Clinton as part of a refocusing on youth following the Arab Spring revolutions.[28] Farrow was responsible for U.S. youth policy and programming[11] with an aim toward "empower[ing] young people as economic and civic actors."[11] Farrow concluded his term as Special Adviser in 2012, with his policies and programs continuing under his successor.[29]

Farrow is head and shoulders more important than Allen ever was or ever will be.

[smirkymonkey]

23. Completely agree.

Have you read his article about Harvey Weinstein in the New Yorker? Quite good.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories

He is an impressive young man.

[NNadir]

38. Thank you for the link. It was well done, including the completely professional way he referred...

...to "Mighty Aphrodite," which I have not seen, but is apparently an Allen movie.

[milestogo]

28. Woody Allen is an asshole.

But that doesn't change the fact that he's a genius. Anyone who is incredibly funny usually has an incredibly high IQ. He is incredibly productive, creating a movie every year. Mia Farrow is no slouch, and she is very talented, but she is not a genius. Frank Sinatra was incredibly talented, but he was not a genius.

Its fairly common for children to look much more like one parent than the other, and in this case, Ronan looks much more like his mother than his father.

Mia Farrow hates Woody Allen's guts, quite understandably. So does Ronan Farrow. So do a lot of people. But at the time Ronan was conceived, Mia Farrow and Woody Allen were a couple. Frank Sinatra was an old married man living a long way away from Mia Farrow. The idea that they got together to conceive a child while they were both happily married to other people makes no sense. Its just a way of erasing Woody Allen - who a lot of people hate because of what he did. It's perfectly understandable, but its not credible.

Ronan Farrow has his mother's looks, his mother's name, and his mother's humanitarian values. But he is exceptionally smart like his highly creative and talented father.

I don't look like my father at all, but I'm certain he's my father.

[NNadir]

31. "Genius" is the most abused word in the world, especially in Allen's case, and as for "IQ..."

...it is a pop concept that actually has no meaning but is also widely abused.

(I explored this elsewhere: A Note on This Race and IQ Business.)

In this exploration, I noted that the definition of "genius" as a general term, ignores the vast diversity and specificity of human skills and enterprise.

Perhaps if one's values low level wit in movies about neurotics in New York seeking to screw women and carrying on about it night and day, one might regard Allen as "genius," I suppose.

I don't find it ingenious. I once found it amusing, but no more.

I really don't care who Ronan Farrow's father is, it's not an issue with me, I am merely stating that Ronan Farrow is a far more impressive person than Allen is.

I am not by the way, a total genetic reductionist in any case. Some of the world's most impressive minds arose from people with rather ordinary backgrounds. Richard Feynman's father was a tailor. Glenn Seaborg's father was a laborer/machinist. Michael Faraday's father was a blacksmith, who by the way, could neither afford nor expressed any interest in giving his son any kind of formal education, but Faraday nonetheless, with no formal education, became one of the greatest scientists ever. Abraham Lincoln, also an autodidact, was the son of an illiterate farmer.

These great intellects all arose from effort.

I very much doubt that Ronan Farrow "got" his intellect from anyone. He seems to have earned it on his own. His values may, of course, be attributable to his upbringing by his mother, but his intellect is his own. It doesn't seem Allen was much involved with it.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. No he doesn't

But he doesn't look like Woody either

[JI7]

40. They don't have a relationship and he said he believed the sister that said allen molested her

[Lil Missy]

8. Of course he is sad - he can identify. He's a pedophile.

[MoonRiver]

13. Birds of a feather...

on both the perverts!

[oberliner]

15. He actually says its sad for the women involved

"There's no winners in that, it's just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."

[MrsCoffee]

18. "sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up"

"You also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either. "

Yeah, sounds like he has great empathy for the women.

[oberliner]

26. Good point

That quote is not especially empathetic for the women.

[MrsCoffee]

17. Male sexual predators seem to have this weird bond.

We see it everyday. It's why we have the culture we have to begin with. They certainly aren't going to end their reign of terror on their own.

[Tavarious Jackson]

19. I think Ronan is Sinatra's

Woody had to open his mouth because he knows it too.

[smirkymonkey]

24. I'm wondering if he's saying this to discredit Ronan's "New Yorker" very good article.

It would not surprise me if he was insanely jealous over Ronan's looks, talent and intelligence.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories

[Tavarious Jackson]

25. Of course..

[fierywoman]

32. If you put up alongside these a picture of young Woody

it would be hard to find any Woody in Ronan, I think.

[Tavarious Jackson]

33. I don't think he is Woody's son nt

[LisaL]

34. I don't see any resemblance to Woody either.

But genetics are a funny thing and one can't go by looks alone.

[Beringia]

39. Dead ringers

[librechik]

27. "I'm sad this behavior is not better tolerated. "

[Not Ruth]

30. Can't Ronan get a DNA test and publicize it to put the issue of paternity to rest?

I would think that it is in everyone's interest.

[tammywammy]

36. How is it anyone's business other than his?

Sure there's speculation, but it's none of anyone's business.

[JI7]

43. I don't see how it is in anyone's interest

He is an adult so no issue of custody and Sinatra is dead.

Only reason for it would be his own curiosity but with the family he comes from with many non blood siblings he probably doesn't think it matters.

[oberliner]

47. Woody Allen Clarifies Weinstein Comments: He Is a Sad, Sick Man

Woody Allen has clarified his comments regarding the Harvey Weinstein scandal exclusively to Variety, stating that he meant that Weinstein is a “sad, sick man.”

“When I said I felt sad for Harvey Weinstein I thought it was clear the meaning was because he is a sad, sick man,” Allen’s statement reads. “I was surprised it was treated differently. Lest there be any ambiguity, this statement clarifies my intention and feelings.”

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/woody-allen-harvey-weinstein-1202590319/

[Bettie]

48. Well, Woody Allen is kind of a creeper himself

so, not surprising.