Following the Sunday premiere of HBO’s Allen v. Farrow, director Woody Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn issued a joint statement denying the premise of the four-part docuseries from directors Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, which documents Dylan Farrow’s long-standing allegation that Allen, the then-partner of her mother, Mia Farrow, molested her as a child. The statement also points a finger at Dylan’s brother, journalist Ronan Farrow, in the release of the docuseries on HBO. He signed a multi-project deal with HBO in 2018; Allen v. Farrow is not one of them, though Ronan Farrow is interviewed for the docuseries.
“These documentarians had no interest in the truth,†Allen and Previn said in a statement, published by The Hollywood Reporter. “Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods. Woody and Soon-Yi were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days ‘to respond. Of course, they declined to do so.†The first episode of Allen v. Farrow details Allen’s alleged grooming of Dylan Farrow. The director has repeatedly denied Farrow’s allegations in the past, and maintains his innocence.
“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false,†the statement continues. “Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place. It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.â€
In point of fact, Connecticut prosecutor Frank Maco said at the time that he had “probable cause†to charge Allen in 1993, but opted not to pursue charges against the director, citing a desire not to put a then-8-year-old Dylan Farrow through a potentially traumatizing trial. According to Variety, Farrow sits down with Maco himself in a future episode of Allen v. Farrow and expresses her conflicting feelings about his decision, as it prevented her from ever having “my day in court.â€
Update, Monday, February 22, at 11 a.m.: Ronan Farrow shared a brief post following Allen v. Farrow’s premiere on Sunday night and the accusatory statement released by Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn. The 33-year-old journalist kept the focus on Dylan Farrow. “Proud of my sister,†he captioned a photo of the two of them in front of a game of Scrabble. In his book Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow opened up about his initial hesitance to support his sister when she decided to republicize her allegations against Allen. Last year, he cut ties with his book publisher, Hachette, after one of its imprints announced it would release Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing. (The book was ultimately picked up by Arcade Publishing.) Dylan, Ronan, and their mother, Mia Farrow, all speak out in the docuseries Allen v. Farrow, airing Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.