In an L.A. Times op-ed titled "Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?," Dylan Farrow writes:
It is a testament to Allen's public relations team and his lawyers that few know these simple facts. It also speaks to the forces that have historically protected men like Allen: the money and power deployed to make the simple complicated, to massage the story.I'd say that is very carefully written to protect Kate Winslet. Woody Allen continues his movie-making and movie-promoting, despite allegations that would utterly ruin other men, because... not because actresses — great actresses — love to work with him, but because "forces" of "money and power" have "created fog."
In this deliberately created fog, A-list actors agree to appear in Allen's films and journalists tend to avoid the subject.
Discussing Weinstein, "Wonder Wheel" star Kate Winslet said, "The fact that these women are starting to speak out about the gross misconduct of one of our most important and well-regarded film producers, is incredibly brave and has been deeply shocking to hear." Of Allen, she said "I didn't know Woody and I don't know anything about that family. As the actor in the film, you just have to step away and say, I don't know anything, really, and whether any of it is true or false. Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person. Woody Allen is an incredible director."
Speaking of creating fog! This op-ed is also fog.
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30 comments:
I'm foggy about the fog. It must be those fires. Wouldn't that be smog? So we have a blog about fog and smog. But it all comes down to William Goldman's timeless observation: in Hollywood, no one knows anything.
Because a lot of intelligent people think nothing happened to Dylan Farrow and that Mia Farrow is delusional on this issue. Woody Allen has done some weird and questionable things, but other than the alleged one with Dylan - which the police also didn't believe happened - there are not victims lining up to allege harassment. Soon-Yi thing was weird but they've been married 20 years, so time to let it go. So many, much more creepy types to go after.
In leftie politics muddy the waters is the preferred.
Feh.
These young hot aspiring actresses want the cachet of working with a 'name' director who is also lauded by the 'smart but shameless' set and if they have to give up the goodies, or at least give him some peeks at them, they are JUST FINE with it.
Until they can cash in on it later. I think that the protection that Woody gets comes from the fact that a boob press, some flirting, maybe a culpably deniable 'grope' in a non sleazy way is all they need to pay. They only need to rub his ego, not rub one out ala Weinstein.
But let's be clear: if these allegations have legs, some set of women know about it...and they aren't talking.
Tell me again about courage?
OR empathy. Here is an uncomfortable subject: the majority of women are raped by someone they know...and the number of women who come forward is rather small.
Is it that they are traumatized beyond all reckoning...or that they do not wish to destroy someone they otherwise like and admire and maybe even profit from?
So too the protection of these directors. Mature women might just 'writing off' one bit of creepiness in an otherwise profitable and worthwhile relationship.
I don't know. Spitballing.
There are serious crimes that go by the name "accessory to murder." It's time for "accessory to harassment" to be codified and criminalized.
Woody Allen also has juicy roles for women older than 31, which most directors don't. If you want a chance at those roles, you stay on Woody's good side. Kate Winslet has had a remarkable career, but she's getting older, and she'll be wanting that kind of work.
Ronan Farrow is the interesting figure in all of this. He sure looks more like he's Frank Sinatra's kid vice Woody Allen. It's also interesting to wonder what Sinatra would have thought about having a son who is gay. As it is, his mother was the star of Rosemary's Baby, which was the movie that made director Roman Polanski famous.
As for women attacking the female facilitators, well, only if the facilitators voted for Trump. Otherwise, dat devvil made dem buy dat dress, er, stand by while Harvey et al fertilized the shrubbery.
It also speaks to the forces that have historically protected men like Allen: the money and power deployed to make the simple complicated, to massage the story.
Watergate could be reduced to "break-in, cover-up". The genius of the Clinton (both Bill and Hillary) scandals is their complexity.
Actors are also pretty dumb. Reciting lines and standing on chalk marks are not high IQ activities.
Reagan was an exception but he had been involved in union stuff and his acting career was not all that lengthy.
Sam Shepard made his money from acting but he was a playwright.
"The genius of the Clinton (both Bill and Hillary) scandals is their complexity."
Most white collar crime is complicated on purpose and hard to explain to a jury.
People -- including women -- have to make a living. If other people, including women, are hurt in the process, well, who are we to judge?
Someone is always being taken advantage of, or missing an opportunity, because you (the generic you) is advancing.
That's just the way it is. Some things will never change. (Bruce Hornsby)
The way to deal with all of this is to have a thick skin, and not to take anything for granted, and not to put up with nonsense from other people. It also helps to be kind to others, but not everyone can do that.
Women have used weaponized false child sexual abuse allegations against men in divorces for decades without being held to account. This is a huge factor in the Woody Allen accusations by Mia Farrow.
In Woody's case, there was a trial where it was determined that the child sexual abuse accusations were not credible. Dylan Farrow fails to account for that salient fact in the public and professional reactions to those accusations. She also fails to account for the fact that he married Soon Yee did result in a social penalty, but over time, that has melted away.
A Cultural Revolution has to turn on itself. The Feministas are running out of the old Culture's leaders to feed to the Guillotine. Next comes the Revolution's leaders. And finally comes Bonaparte's part.
Innocent until proven guilty. Has he been tried? no. There is nothing but gossip and normal people don't act on gossips.
I don't like Allen´s movies and have seen only a couple. Overrated. He is nor Antonioni neither Truffaut
Enablers? There is no obligation to go to the police if they don't go to the police themselves
So what are we to do with all the evildoers -- known and suspected or accused, real and unreal -- the abusers, harassers, the racists and Confederate history buffs, the cartoon Nazis, the -phobes and haters, the climate deniers and more??
Eternal anger and resentment, scorn and damnation, shunning, banishment and ostracization, retribution and vengeance?
Beyond the maelstrom of rage -- however much deserved -- what then? Do we go out looking for more bad people, more wrongdoers, a thorough cleansing of humanity to purge all the impure?
Or is there a way out of the social fires of perdition?
The Red Guards eventually tired of their rage against the traditions and the history of China.
The did a lot of harm before they did, though.
In 1981, the Party declared that the Cultural Revolution was "responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic".
The French Revolution finally culminated in The Terror. After Robespierre was Guillotined, it ended but Napoleon came along with his "whiff of grapeshot" and really ended it.
The present hysteria resembles a couple of recent hysterias in the US. It will probably peter out, Maybe after Trump is re-elected in a landslide.
Immediately after posting the above, I tried an addendum to my remarks, only to have them disappear in conflicting edits, without my having copied them first. So here goes again --
I am not saying, "Enough is enough. I'm bored. Let's move on to something more important." In fact, we need more -- a lot more. So keep it going. More exposure, more sunlight, more revelations and unmasking of frauds. We need more truth.
And then what? Is there a way to heal?
(Yes there is. But I fear that we as a society have moved beyond it. And, actually, moving beyond it is a big reason why all these things have happened in the first place.)
(I previously wrote a couple other thoughts, but I can't remember them. But I am remembering to copy this before hitting Publish)
Mark, just get into the habit: Copy, copy, copy. Otherwise you will chew nails.
It is interesting to me that *women* aren't attacking Winslet for her talk about how "shocking" this is to hear about Weinstein.
My guess is whatever the game is in Hollywood, it has worked for Winslet.
Allen had some wiggle room. He could plausibly argue his innocence in a court of law if not in the court of public opinion. With the exception of Hemingway, he apparently kept his predations within the family. Not a lot of women have come forward with accusations against him. His fans and the actors in his films could claim that they were acting in the grand and inviolate tradition of the presumption of innocence and that child custody fights are just too darned messy for anyone to pass judgment on.......Weinstein has taken the wiggle out of the room. Elephants have that effect on rooms. I don't think Allen will ever make another movie.
Mark, just get into the habit
I usually do. Except when I don't. When I do, invariably there is no problem posting. When I don't . . .
Michael k, hah, true and made me laugh.
1. Kate is allowing for Due Process, good for her.
2. Kate is a free American woman, which means she has the fullest range of sexual opportunities than have ever existed. She has amply expressed that in her work, modeling it for our culture. It is not an unwholesome thing, this freedom. I celebrate whatever brush of delight Mr. Allen aND kate shared, for heavens sake.
3. << wow, this Ronan Farrow, wow >> G+d bless him in his extraordinary particulars, and though i think he is off here, we are all the better for him.
I think Gordon is likely onto something- how many directors do you know with that many starring roles that can be filled by older actresses (I know, un-PC these days)?
I kind of respect Ms. Winslet's answer- she doesn't know if Farrow's story is true. The Soon Yi affair is unseemly, but it doesn't really speak to the truthfulness of Dylan Farrow's claimed abuse.
Fog, a lot of people don't believe Dylan Farrow, I don't.
I’m watching to see if and when Ann Althouse will stop attacking Hillary Clinton for Bill Clinton’s.
Charles,
I have read Ms. Althouse's critiques a bit differently from you- it seems to me that Ms. Clinton's perfidy is hypocrisy in this matter, not that she stood by her husband in the face of multiple claims of sexual misconduct.
"I'm watching to see if and when women are going to attack other women for their role in facilitating and covering for men and their sexual violations." So am I. But I am also watching to see if women will continue the gleeful, gloating Gillibrandi witch hunt, going after men, all men, but particularly righty men, collateral female damage be damned.
Woody was already in treatment for his weird behavior with Dylan, when the allegation of abuse was made. They were getting counseling and he was never supposed to be alone with the girl. This is BEFORE Mia found the pictures of Soon Yi. He liked to sniff her, put his thumb in her mouth, and crawled into bed with her in his undies. Rather stupidly, This did not set off "pedo" warnings with Mom- she just thought he was bonding with his daughter too strongly, and not with his son and the rest of the family. It took porny pix of her teenager to make her realize Woody was dangerous. Also, the DA said he found cause to prosecute but declined to do so to protect the victim. Woody was never found not guilty- he wasn't tried.
"Kate is a free American woman..."
Kate is British.
Woody has always been at least a little off, and this has been clear from his movies from the very beginning. That's also part of his attraction, and until the biter divorce, it seems to have helped attract Mia as well. Mia also is clearly at least a little off, and she's also clearly managed to impress his malevolence/malfeasance upon Ronan, which is easy to do when the person you're trying to demonize is off in just the right ways. (Woody's attraction to Soon Yi may have been creepy once, but after 20 years of seemingly normal marriage, it's time to let that go.)
Ronan has had a lucky break, but now is auditioning for the role of Grand Inquisitor of this neo-Puritanical Inquisition. The lead hunter of the new witches, and if you won't help him, well, you must be a witch too or at least a witch-enabler. Unfortunately, there are too few adults around him wiling to tell him to calm down, and too few adults of influence willing to risk being on the wrong side of the hunt themselves by calling for calm. So, this inquisition/witch hunt will have to run its course.
Hopefully, we won't have lost too much more of our freedom before that happens.
"Kate is a free American woman..."
Kate is British.
At least for Hollywood women, non-Americans sometimes seem more classically American. Winslet, Theron, ....
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