ITthis week 30 Rock actor Alec Baldwin spoke in defense of Woody Allen after the film’s HBO premiere Allen v. Farrow, a four-part documentary examining the allegation that the famous filmmaker sexually molested his 7-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, in the attic of their Connecticut home on August 4, 1992.
“Who needs courtrooms or the rule of law when we have a trial by the media?” Baldwin wrote on Twitter, along with an article about the documentary.
Baldwin’s critique was sent to his hundreds of thousands of followers the day after the premiere, so it seems that SNLTrump decided to judge the entire series after watching only his first episode. As a whole, overall, Allen v. Farrow it includes not only testimonies from Dylan, Mia and Ronan Farrow, but also interviews with neighbors, family friends, city and state officials, and lots of unseen documents – as well as audio recordings of phone calls between Woody and Mia.
Its directors, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, were more than a little surprised by the “media trial” accusation.
“Wow. How can he say that? He hasn’t seen everything yet,” Ziering told The Daily Beast. “I think the media trial has taken place over the last three decades, Alec. Let’s see who was tried and convicted. ) watch the series, and b) look at the role that the media has played in spreading the thorn instead of the truth, in not making any verification of the facts, in excoriating someone and condemning her [Mia Farrow] without any due diligence over three decades, and then tell us about the process carried out by the media. ”
The third episode of Allen v. Farrow, premiered Sunday night, really focuses on how Allen armed the media against Farrow following Dylan’s accusation of molesting Allen. Immediately after learning that Allen had been investigated by police, he held a press conference at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, where he proclaimed his love for Farrow’s daughter, a college-aged Soon-Yi, and accused Farrow of prepared the plea for revenge – even though Farrow brought Dylan to a pediatrician to discuss the charge, and the pediatrician reported it independently to police.
After the press, Allen covered interviews with stories TIME, Newsweek, and peopleand also sat down for an interview with 60 minutes. Mia Farrow says she wanted to keep the matter private for the sake of her children and did not give interviews at the time. Because of her attitude, Allen’s narrative seems to take place in the media and, by extension, the public conscience, throwing Farrow like a contemptuous vengeful woman.
“He chose to protect his family instead of telling the story.”
“Woody’s story was so prominent, in part, because Mia chose not to talk to the media, because she knew that if she did, it would stir up the media even more and already have such a traumatic effect. about her family, as it was, that she felt the best thing for her family was not to say anything, ”Dick explains. “So he chose to protect his family instead of telling the story.”
“I would like to raise a sharp point back to Alec Baldwin: if you watch the show, it is Woody Allen who went public with the story. It wasn’t Mia, “Ziering added. “It was the first Woody Allen press conference. Woody Allen was in charge of the covers TIME and Newsweek, and agreed with a 60 minutes interview. This is the first time Mia has spoken at length to the camera about this issue. ”
Again, Baldwin is not exactly the poster child of the #MeToo movement. In 2017, he briefly left Twitter after criticizing one of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged rape victims, Rose McGowan, for reaching a financial agreement with him. Baldwin also complained to Megyn Kelly that the #MeToo movement is targeting innocent men and joked that she can’t even tell if touching his wife, Hilaria Baldwin – who is not Spanish – is now “inappropriate.” (There was also his infamous appearance in the documentary of good friend James Toback, who was sailing with Roman Polanski on a yacht.)
Another character who enters the fight in episode 3 of Allen v. Farrow is the director’s longtime lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, who represented Allen at the time of the abuse charge and subsequent custody of the child (another of his former clients: Harvey Weinstein). Earlier this week, Abramowitz was detained by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo amid an investigation into his alleged coverage of deaths at COVID nursing homes, as well as three sexual harassment charges against him, two from former assistants.
When I mentioned Dick and Ziering to the Cuomo news, they couldn’t help but laugh.
“Aoleu. I don’t think he saw the show,” Ziering said. “I don’t think those episodes have aired yet, so he wouldn’t know – and neither would Elkan.”
“There seems to be a list of common suspects circulating in such cases,” she added. “I know the playing card.”
As for Baldwin, on Wednesday night he announced that he was giving up Twitter again, calling it a place where “all the idiots in the United States and not only go to get their advanced degrees in holiness.”
The Daily Beast will have additional conversations with Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering immediately after Episodes 3 and 4 of Allen v. Farrow.