‘I can’t help thinking Soon-Yi’s attack on Mia Farrow may be Woody Allen’s best script yet’
IN January 1992, Mia Farrow discovered explicit nude photographs of her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, taken by her then-long-term partner, Woody Allen.
At the time, Previn was a 21-year-old university student. Allen, who had raised her as his daughter for the past 11 years, was 55.
The discovery sparked one of Hollywood’s most acrimonious break-ups that culminated in accusations from their adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who was seven years old at the time, that Allen had molested her.
Both then and in the intervening decades, some were suspicious of Dylan’s accusations, accusing Farrow of coaching Dylan in what would, if true, have been the most spiteful acts of revenge imaginable.
What followed was a web of accusations, investigations, lawsuits, statements, and lurid media coverage that has persisted ever since.
Before this week, the only words spoken by Previn were in August 1992 when she lambasted her adoptive mother through Allen’s publicist.
In the statement, she accused Farrow of being “violent with me” and declared that “the business of him molesting Dylan is so ridiculous that I won’t dignify it with a comment”.
Now, more than 25 years on and out of a clear blue sky, Previn has launched an extraordinary attack on her mother in an interview for New York Magazine, defending Allen and claiming Farrow took “advantage” of the #MeToo movement to leave her now husband a Hollywood outcast.
Previn claims that during her childhood Farrow would hold her upside down “to get the blood to drain to my head. Because she thought – or she read it. God knows where she came up with the notion – that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something”.
She also alleges she was slapped across the face and spanked with a hairbrush by Farrow, who she says called her “stupid” and “moronic”.
This echoes some of what Moses Farrow, the adopted son of Allen and Farrow, claimed in a blog post earlier this year when he defended his father and accused his mother of physical abuse.
Previn goes on to defend her husband against allegations he molested Dylan as she accused Farrow of using the #MeToo movement as part of a revenge campaign.
“What’s happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust,” Previn moaned.
“[Mia] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan [Farrow] as a victim. And a whole new generation is hearing about it when they shouldn’t.”
Dylan Farrow, along with her siblings Ronan Farrow, Matthew Previn, Sascha Previn, Fletcher Previn, Daisy Previn, Isaiah Farrow and Quincy Farrow, condemned the interview, siding with their mother.
For her part, Dylan has maintained her story into adulthood, never wavering from her claims.
Previn’s defence came just months after Allen said he should be a “poster child” for the #MeToo movement because he’s worked in the film industry for 50 years and none of the actresses he’s worked with has accused him of sexual harassment or assault.
“I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement,” Allen said.
“I should be the poster boy for the #MeToo movement. Because I have worked in movies for 50 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses and not a single one – big ones, famous ones, ones starting out – have ever ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all. I’ve always had a wonderful record with them.”
His nerve to suggest such a thing given his own family’s claim speaks volumes of how genuinely weird Allen is.
Previn’s attempt to play the victim is entirely lost on me.
The truth is Mia Farrow saved her from parent-less poverty in South Korea and gave her a home and an education. She repaid her by running off with her mother’s man, and is now portraying her as the world’s worst and most uncaring human being.
Reading her words, I cannot help feel they may have been Allen’s best script yet.
[Mia Farrow] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan as a victim ....
Soon-Yi Previn hit out at Mia Farrow in a New York magazine interview