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Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, has written a first person account published in The New York Times that details her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by the film director at age 7.
“[W]hen I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me,” Farrow wrote in an open letter posted on columnist Nicholas Kristof‘s blog.
In an editors note at the top of the Times blog post, Kristof wrote that the letter was “the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public.” The renewed accusations surface as Allen’s Blue Jasmine is nominated for three Academy Awards, including best original screenplay for the director.
RELATED: Lena Dunham Calls Dylan Farrow Open Letter ‘Courageous, Powerful and Generous’
Farrow also wrote that Hollywood figures have turned a “blind eye” to the accusations and specifically asked Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett and Louis C.K. — who appear in Blue Jasmine — “What if it had been your child”?
“Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up,” she wrote, adding: “That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, ‘who can say what happened,’ to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines.”
Farrow wrote: “Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.”
On Jan. 12, after Diane Keaton accepted Allen’s Golden Globes honor, Ronan Farrow, the son of Allen, wrote on Twitter: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?”
A statement issued from Woody Allen’s rep read: “Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon.”
STORY: Cate Blanchett Addresses Woody Allen Molestation Charge
Allen and Mia Farrow split up as a couple in 1992, when the accusations of abuse surfaced. The director married Soon-Yi Previn, also an adopted daughter of Farrow, in 1997. Despite the allegations, Allen’s career has thrived. His recently directed films include the Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris (2011), To Rome With Love (2012) and last year’s critically acclaimed Blue Jasmine.
The director’s upcoming Magic in the Moonlight — featuring Colin Firth and Emma Stone — was recently acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for domestic distribution.
In a statement, Sony Pictures Classics — U.S. distributor of Blue Jasmine as well as such recent Allen movies as Midnight in Paris and To Rome With Love — said: “We have had a long, productive and rewarding relationship with Mr. Allen. This is a very complicated situation and a tragedy for everyone involved. Mr. Allen has never been charged in relationship to any of this, and therefore deserves our presumption of innocence. Films are major efforts of collaboration. There are scores of artists and crafts people behind Blue Jasmine. We support and celebrate their extraordinary work here, and count Blue Jasmine as a major achievement of Mr. Allen’s career. “
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