Indeed, the larger context for this rehashed scandal is not a pattern of abuse or the ongoing dysfunctions of a celebrated family but rather the demands of a publicity rollout. ....The impetus seems to be to establish Mia Farrow as a celebrity activist worthy of the world stage, and, as well, to launch a public career for her son Ronan....The campaign began in the November issue of Vanity Fair in a profile of Mia Farrow by Maureen Orth, a long-time friend (Orth is the widow of NBCs Tim Russert), in which Farrow offered the headline grabber that Frank Sinatra, rather than Woody Allen, might be Ronans father. In a demonstration of Farrows famous media acumen, thats all she said, Sinatra might be – worldwide titillation followed....The terms of the article would have been negotiated beforehand. Mia Farrow is, at this point in her career, not a Vanity Fair worthy subject. Hence, in return for laudatory press coverage of her charitable work, and near sycophantic treatment of her yet-to-be-employed son, she would have had to agree to revisit her legendary scandal. That, and then some. The price of publicity for her and Ronan was, in effect, Allen....Its unremitting and unequivocal. Mia – good, great, noble. Woody – evil, duplicitous, dangerous. Neither the other Mia of many reports, hungry for press and out for revenge, nor the long-married Allen with teenage daughters, steadily doing his work, are present here. The Vanity Fair piece effectively launched Ronan. Overnight he went from unknown to celebrity, shortly hired by MSNBC. Two weeks ago, he was given a permanent spot on the cable news networks schedule. He has, I am reliably told, promised a grateful MSNBC that his public fight with Allen is far from over. Several weeks ago, during the Golden Globe Awards where Allen was given a lifetime achievement award, Mia tweeted her displeasure, and then Ronan, upped the ante, and tweeted more pointedly about the 21-year-old molestation charge.....Then last week in the Daily Beast, Weide, who made the 2012 PBS American Masters documentary about Allen, followed up with his close analysis of exactly what happened in 1992. Its quite a demolition job on the Vanity Fair piece, deconstructing timeline, opportunity, and circumstance. Whats more, it paints a far more complicated picture of Mia from the one she has curated about herself, including that her brother is in jail for child molestation – Mias own family is a horribly dysfunctional one – and that her son, Moses, no longer speaks to her and accuses her of brainwashing....The stakes were raised, in other words. Hence, Mia enlists her good friend Kristof to provide a forum for Dylan Farrows letter. Kristof says it is the first time Dylan Farrow has spoken, but, in fact, thats what Vanity Fair said three months ago, when Dylan spoke to Orth. But this time, Dylan appears in open-letter form – in her own voice. Its a riveting and astute piece of writing – a study in artful composition. It is a 28-year-olds absolute memory of being a seven-year-old. Some of this she recalled for the Vanity Fair piece. But there are now many new details.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 05:08:27 +0000
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