The HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production: Propaganda, Slander, Omission, Shame, Lies, Melodrama, and Racism

Today I’m going to write my last post regarding this shameful false accusation against icon writer and cinema director Woody Allen. My post will not appear in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, not even The Guardian, but I’m a huge Woody Allen fan, a woman, a mother of three wonderful children, a musician and a PhD candidate (Philosophy), and I also have something to say. I’m sick and tired of seeing a wonderful and innocent man like Woody being insulted, wrongly judged and slandered. I’m furious at the herd, the bullies and the stupidity of the majority. Furthermore, I’m so tired of the fact that the name of Woody Allen is now almost always linked to the Farrow clan. On one side we have a wonderful genius who creates beauty and masterpieces, and, on the other side, we have a pitiful-non-talented clan that destroys and slanders. Enough with that.

Woody is a genius who has written the most beautiful roles for women, has brought to the world the most brilliant movies filled with poetry, philosophy, laughter, sadness, and beauty, and has given to millions of fans all around the world joy with his art: his amazing masterpieces, his terrific books, and his wonderful New Orleans Jazz. But Woody is not only a genius, he’s also a human being with feelings, a loving husband to his wife Soon-Yi (29 years together, 24 years married, and still going strong), and a loving father (Soon-Yi and Woody have two beautiful and bright adopted daughters: Bechet, 22, and Manzie, 21, who adore their parents). Woody is made of blood and flesh, like you and me, has never committed any crime and has been slandered heavily since 2018, and for many years before. So, this insanity stops now.

Of course, the fact that the world has become crazy and that legal justice seems to be irrelevant today, and that personal affairs are now “solved” on Twitter, one-sided magazines and shameful garbage productions instead of in court, doesn’t help. The last spit on sanity, common sense, justice and human dignity is the recent HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow garbage production that turns a vengeful insane woman (Mia Farrow) into a saint and an innocent and brilliant man (Woody) into the devil. This HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production should win a Guinness World of Records award for the most manipulated, untruthful, racist, slamming and shameful “documentary” ever. Goebbels would probably have loved it.

The world has gone nuts (again), and the Dreyfus affair, the lynchings of African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century, even the Holocaust, and the McCarthyism inevitably come to my mind when TV shows like the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production are being aired. How is it possible to even make a TV show on a false accusation that was proven false almost 30 years ago? Is that possible thanks to the general stupidity of the American public? Or to the stupidity of the majority of the human population? Woody says in Hollywood Ending: “You mean why the country got so stupid suddenly? My theory is fast food”.

What strikes me is the huge fear that (good) journalists seem to have to openly declare that the whole “case” against Woody is a prefabricated lie meticulously prepared by the Farrow clan. At best, you get some articles denouncing the one-sided approach that the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production has, but that’s not it. The whole production is based on a non-event. And that should be said out loud. Why are people in the US so afraid of saying out loud that Woody has been falsely accused? Woody is a victim of a false accusation. And that’s a crime. If you believe a false victim, you are accusing an innocent man. And to accuse an innocent man is a crime. Period.

One of the very few brave (American) people who have openly defended Woody is the great Bob Weide (Woody Allen’s fans new hero). You can read here his brilliant posts The Truth About Woody Allen, Part I (April 8, 2019), and The Truth About Woody Allen, Part II (April 8, 2019), and his article The Woody Allen Allegations: Not So Fast (from 2014, updated 2017). Bob has also written about the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production in his great post The Mia/Woody HBO Documentary–What to Watch for (February 7, 2021) and about the case of the mysterious train in his brilliant post Farrow v. Farrow: The Case of the Magical, Disappearing Electric Toy Train Set (February 28, 2021). Other famous voices that have supported Woody (American and non-American) have been, so far, Alec Baldwin, Diane Keaton, Javier Bardem, Scarlet Johansson, Anjelica Huston, Dianne Wiest, Léa Seydoux, Wallace Shawn, Larry David, Cherry Jones, Joy Behar, Gina Gershon, Elena Anaya, Jeff Goldblum, Antonio Banderas, Alan Alda, Cate Blanchett, Alessandra Mastronardi, Blake Lively, Emily Mortimer, Charlotte Rampling, Caroline Aaron, Isabelle Huppert. Lots of women. Still, the voices are timid, not loud. Everybody fears being lynched. I wonder why.

Coming back to the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production, I think that, if you decide to go with the charade, then at least make it balanced. Open the theater, but for everybody. Talk about everything. Don’t condemn Woody’s love for Soon-Yi (a true love that has defeated all the criticisms of the puritan minds: almost three decades together and still going strong), and leave out Mia Farrow’s affairs with Sinatra and Previn. Don’t talk about “inappropriate” behavior (Americans love that word: “inappropriate”) from Woody and leave out the fact that Mia Farrow slept with her biological (Sinatra’s?) son Ronan until he was 11 years old (ahem, ahem). Don’t talk about the great mommy that Mia Farrow was and leave out the tragedies of many of her adopted children. Let’s not forget that Mia Farrow has/had 4 biological children and 10 adopted children. From the 10 adopted children, it’s important to remember that two of them (Tam and Thaddeus Farrow) sadly committed suicide (Tam died from a pill overdose and Thaddeus shot himself in the torso). Another of Mia Farrow’s adoptive daughters (Lark Previn) sadly died of AIDS alone and in poverty at age 35. These are three tragedies that neither the Farrow clan nor the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production have mentioned. Then, don’t use 4 episodes inflating a false accusation against Woody and leave out Mia Farrow’s own brother’s pedophilia. Yes, you are reading it correctly: Mia Farrow’s own brother (John Villers-Farrow) was sentenced in 2013 to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing two boys over a period of 8 years. That’s explosive news, and, nevertheless, very few people know about this. Again, neither the Farrow clan nor the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production have condemned John Villers-Farrow’s pedophilia.

Then, do you want to talk about child abuse, HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production? Great. Let’s talk about child abuse. Let’s talk about the abuse that Moses, Soon-Yi and other adopted children suffered at the hands of Mia Farrow. Did you know that Mia Farrow used to beat, lock and drag down a flight of stairs some of her adopted children? These abuses have been completely silenced by the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production. Let’s now hear Soon-Yi and Moses:

Soon-Yi said in 1992 (in 1992! But nobody, absolutely nobody, cared):

“Mia was always very hot-tempered and given to rages which terrified all the kids. They can’t speak freely because they’re still dependent on her. But they could really tell stories and I’m sure one day will. It’s true Mia was violent with me and I have conclusive proof”. (Soon-Yi Speaks: ‘Let’s Not Get Hysterical’, 1992)

In 2018, Soon-Yi said: “Mia was never kind to me, never civil”. (Introducing Soon-Yi Previn)

In Moses’ famous post of May 23, 2018, A Son Speaks Out (conveniently omitted in the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production), Moses writes:

“I’m a very private person and not at all interested in public attention. But, given the incredibly inaccurate and misleading attacks on my father, Woody Allen, I feel that I can no longer stay silent as he continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit”.

“Mia had adopted me, her seventh child, as a single parent in 1980. In 1992 she successfully petitioned to allow Woody to co-adopt both Dylan and me, writing to the adoption agency, detailing what an excellent father he was (…) I never once saw anything that indicated inappropriate behavior at any time”.

“It was important to my mother to project to the world a picture of a happy blended household of both biological and adopted children, but this was far from the truth”.

“It pains me to recall instances in which I witnessed siblings, some blind or physically disabled, dragged down a flight of stairs to be thrown into a bedroom or a closet, then having the door locked from the outside. [Mia] even shut my brother Thaddeus, paraplegic from polio, in an outdoor shed overnight as punishment for a minor transgression”.

“Soon-Yi was her most frequent scapegoat (…) When Soon-Yi was young, Mia once threw a large porcelain centerpiece at her head. Luckily it missed, but the shattered pieces hit her legs. Years later, Mia beat her with a telephone receiver. Soon-Yi’s made it clear that her desire was simply to be left alone, which increasingly became the case. Even if her relationship with Woody was unconventional, it allowed her to escape. Others weren’t so lucky”.

“The summer between first and second grades… my mother came over to my bed and found a tape measure. She gave me a piercing look that stopped me in my tracks and asked if I had taken it, as she had been looking for it all day. I stood in front of her, frozen. She asked why it was on my bed. I told her I didn’t know, that perhaps a workman had left it there. She asked again and again and again. When I didn’t give the answer she wanted, she slapped my face, knocking off my glasses. She told me I was lying and directed me to tell my brothers and sisters that I had taken the tape measure. Through my tears I listened to her as she explained that we would rehearse what should have happened. She would walk into the room and I would tell her I was sorry for taking the tape measure, that I had taken it to play with and that I would never do it again. She made me rehearse it at least a half-dozen times. That was the start of her coaching, drilling, scripting, and rehearsing – in essence, brainwashing. I became anxious and fearful”.

“Once, when I was given a new pair of jeans, I thought they would look cool if I cut off a couple of the belt loops. When Mia saw what I had done, she spanked me repeatedly and had me remove all my clothing, saying, “You’re not deserving of any clothes” and making me stand naked in the corner of her room, in front of my older siblings (…) In short, it was not a happy home – or a healthy one”. (Moses Farrow, A Son Speaks Out).

In these two videos Moses recalls being humiliated and abused by Mia Farrow:

Moses has reconnected with Woody Allen, and is estranged by the whole Farrow clan. In 2014 Dylan Farrow said (or tweeted?): “My brother is dead to me”. How nice.

Woody’s “case” is more clear than water. Woody was cleared in 1993 by two investigation teams. After a 14-month-old investigation, the New York State child welfare investigators dropped their inquiry saying they considered the accusation against him unfounded stating: “No credible evidence was found that the child named in this report has been abused or maltreated”. The doctor who headed the Connecticut investigation in 1993, Dr. John M. Leventhal, saw strong inconsistencies in Dylan Farrow’s statement and concluded that Dylan either invented the story or that this fantasy was planted in Dylan’s mind by her mother: “We had two hypotheses: one, that these were statements that were made by an emotionally disturbed child and then became fixed in her mind. And the other hypothesis was that she was coached or influenced by her mother. We did not come to a firm conclusion. We think that it was probably a combination.” The Yale-New Haven Hospital’s Child Sexual Abuse Clinic Evaluation of Dylan Farrow concluded that Dylan was not sexually abused: “It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen”. Also, another fact that the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production “forgets” to mention is that Woody voluntary took and passed a lie detector proof in 1992, while Mia Farrow declined to have one. Case closed!

But the show goes on. The lie goes on. Why? Because when the investigations cleared Woody and stated that no abuse had ever occurred, Mia Farrow, instead of being happy for her adoptive daughter’s mental health, continued her eternal crusade against Woody (until today!). A crusade that has been happily taken over by the now-adult-Dylan Farrow (who clearly enjoys the publicity, desperately needs the approval of Twitter and is delighted with the mistreatment of Woody), and by the now-adult-Ronan Farrow (Sinatra’s son?), who clearly takes enormous pleasure and effort in making Woody sink.

But, what’s the real reason behind this false accusation? One of the strongest love stories ever. One of the bravest women on Earth: Soon-Yi. Woody’s biological daughter? Nope. Woody’s adopted daughter? Nope. Woody’s step-daughter? Nope. Soon-Yi is Woody’s wife for almost 3 decades. Who is Soon-Yi? Soon-Yi was born c. 1970 in Korea. She was adopted in 1977 by André Previn and Mia Farrow and brought to the United States. She’s, of course, American. In spite of the eternal denigration she suffered at the hands of Mia Farrow when she was little (Farrow used to call her retarded and stupid), she’s a highly intelligent and cultivated woman, speaks several languages, majored in Art from Drew University and earned a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Columbia University.

“I’m a psychology major at college who fell for a man who happens to be the ex-boyfriend of Mia. I admit it’s offbeat, but let’s not get hysterical. The tragedy here is that, because of Mia’s vindictiveness, the children must suffer.” (Soon-Yi Speaks: ‘Let’s Not Get Hysterical’, 1992)

You can read her story in this explosive interview by Daphne Merkin: Introducing Soon-Yi Previn. This honest and powerful interview was completely ignored and trashed by the media and the supporters of the Farrow clan when it appeared two and a half years ago, and has been completely silenced by the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production.

So, Mia Farrow can help make thousands of melodramatic garbage productions, she can invent thousands of false accusations, she can decide to destroy her adoptive children’s lives, but she will never be able to change the fact that Woody and Soon-Yi fell in love, love each other for 29 years, formed a beautiful family and are super happy together. In your face, Mia!

Now, there is another thing that the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production has shown. A terrible thing: racism. I personally hate to make distinctions by “race” or “ethnicity”, two words that inevitably remind me of the extermination of millions of Jewish men, women and children –ghettos, Einsatzgruppen and gas chambers (let’s not forget that the Holocaust happened only 80 years ago). There is nothing lower than racism and antisemitism. So, coming back to the Farrows: all the adopted children of Mia Farrow are/were (three are sadly dead) American, of course, in spite of where they were born. But some were born in the US and others outside the US. And now, a small parenthesis: I have three children (a 14-year-old daughter, a 12-year-old son, and a 7-year-old daughter –all huge Woody Allen fans) and I have always educated them against racism. When my youngest daughter saw the movie Il a déjà tes yeux (a French comedy where a Black-French couple adopts a White-French baby), she couldn’t see that there was something different with the baby (and my youngest daughter is gifted –so is my son and my oldest daughter). So, I smiled and felt very proud of myself as a mother for the education I gave my children against racism. The point of this parenthesis is that I don’t care at all where the adopted children of Mia Farrow were born, or from where their biological parents were. I don’t like to play the racism card, but apparently the Farrow clan and the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production give a huge importance to the origin of these kids. Because, if not, how could such a scandalous unequal treatment (by both Mia Farrow and the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production) of Mia Farrow’s adopted children be possible? Some are heard; others silenced. Some enjoy privileges; others commit suicide. Some stay in the clan; others are estranged. Some are welcomed; others died alone in poverty. Some are the protagonists of the show; others are only extras. This horrid inequality has only one name: racism. Have you heard, Dick? Have you heard, Ziering? Have you heard, HBO? Have you heard, Farrow clan? You are racists. And I’m happy that all the world can see that now.

Then, to the phrase that I hear a lot lately: “Believe all survivors”. Yes: Believe them. As long as they are true survivors. To the other phrase: “Believe all victims”. Well, the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production carefully decided to believe only some of the victims. But that’s not it. The real problem is that the victims they picked to believe are the wrong victims.

Well, I’m going to wrap up, because only a few people will read this. I didn’t see the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production nor do I plan to ever see it. I also never saw The Birth of a Nation (Oh, Americans really seem to miss the myth of the Lost Cause, don’t they?), and I never watch “documentaries” that glorify Holocaust denial. All that garbage belongs in the garbage. And that’s where it lays. I’m very happy to have read that the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production has terrible ratings and that the critical reviews are absolutely sinking it. That’s what happens when you create a shameful pile of crap.

By the way, IMDb is declining most of the critical reviews. I know that because mine has been declined 5 times, and my husband’s too. In 2018, after those crocodile tears on TV, I created the Facebook group I Believe Woody. Today it has more than 11,200 members, and many members have written on IMDb against the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production, but only a few critical reviews have been approved. Also, I’m an administrator and moderator of other Woody Allen Facebook groups: Woody Allen Quotes (more than 28,000 members), Woody Allen Appreciation Society (more than 4,600 members), and Woody Allen Fans (more than 2,600 members), and I can say that all Woody Allen fans are furious at the propaganda, slander, omission, shame, lies, melodrama, and racism of the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production. Their voices too are being silenced, because their reviews on IMDb are being declined (or approved and, after 3 days, deleted). So, our hero can be slandered but we are not allowed to say anything? Well, the good news is that an imminent lawsuit will destroy the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production and all the people involved in it. That’s a delicious thought.

Woody Allen’s Official Facebook Page (with more than 2.2 MILLION of followers) posted an official statement from Woody and Soon-Yi some days ago:

So, this shameful HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production is the same old lie. The same old story. The same false accusation. Everything, everything points to Woody’s innocence and Mia Farrow’s diabolical vengeful pathology. The Farrow clan have spent their lives accusing an innocent man. That must be tiring! Poor them. How pathetic. Such a waste of a life. They will be so easily forgotten. But millions of fans from all around the world will continue loving, adoring and praising Woody’s work until the end of times.

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One of the coolest photos that describe the feelings that Woody Allen’s family, friends, supporters and fans have towards this disgusting campaign against Woody is the following photo, posted on Woody Allen’s Official Facebook Page, right before the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow production aired. Here you go, that’s for all of you: HBO, Dick, Ziering, Farrow clan, and supporters of the eternal shameful lie!

Woody will always be remembered as the genius who created the most powerful, beautiful and brilliant roles for women, the genius who drew poetry with his films, the genius who poured philosophy in his films, the genius who made us cry and laugh, and the genius who made us think about love, life and death. On the contrary, the three vengeful Farrows, the HBO-Dick-Ziering-Farrow garbage production, and all the opportunists who felt good slandering Woody and tweeting against Woody will be remembered by their ugliness, injustice and cowardice for some years and finally will be forgotten for ever.

Antonia Tejeda Barros, 
Madrid, March 5, 2021