New York, Jan 17 (AFP) Woody Allen was thrust to the foretoday of the sexual harassment watershed sweeping the UnitedStates when his daughter revived child molestation allegationsagainst the famed director, asking the world to finallybelieve her.
Dylan Farrow's claim that the director touched herinappropriately as a seven-year-old first surfaced a quarterof a century ago in the wake of her mother's acrimonious splitfrom Allen, who ran off in 1992 with his lover's adoptivedaughter from a previous marriage, Soon-Yi Previn, 21 yearsold at the time.
But the legendary director of more than 50 movies, winnerof four Oscars and showered with awards in Europe, has alwaysdenied the allegations. The claims were never proven and the82-year-old director has continued to enjoy a glitteringcareer.
But the sexual harassment firestorm that has brought downHollywood titans such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey,and rocked industry, politics and the media, has fueled agrowing backlash against Allen.
In the wake of the Time's Up movement launched byHollywood women to counter sexual harassment and sexism,Allen's estranged, adopted daughter said it was time for theworld to finally listen.
"Why shouldn't I want to bring him down? Why shouldn't Ibe angry? Why shouldn't I be hurt?" she told "CBS ThisMorning" in her first television interview, excerpts of whichwere broadcast on Wednesday. The full interview is to airThursday.
"Why shouldn't I feel some sort of outrage that after allthese years, being ignored and disbelieved and tossed aside?"Farrow added.
Asked why people should believe her now, she replied: "Isuppose that's on them, but all I can do is speak my truth andhope, hope that somebody will believe me instead of justhearing."The film director's agent did not immediately respond toan AFP request to comment.
It was a devastating expose of alleged rape, assault andharassment published by Farrow's brother, Ronan, thebiological son of Allen and Mia Farrow, in The New Yorker lastOctober that helped end Weinstein's career.
Since then, a growing number of actresses, includingGreta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, Ellen Page and Mia Sorvino, haveannounced they regret working with Allen.
Hall, who appears in his upcoming movie "A Rainy Day inNew York" and starred in his 2008 romantic comedy "VickyCristina Barcelona," announced on Instagram that she haddonated her wage from his latest film to the Time's Upmovement.
"After reading and re-reading Dylan Farrow's statementsof a few days ago and going back and reading the older ones --I see, not only how complicated this matter is, but that myactions have made another woman feel silenced and dismissed,"she said.
Up-and-coming actor Timothee Chalamet, who also stars in"A Rainy Day in New York" followed suit and also announced hewas donating his entire salary from the film to Time's Up, theLGBT Center in New York and anti-sexual violence organizationRAINN.
"We are in a day and age when everything must be re-examined. This kind of abuse cannot be allowed to continue. Ifthis means tearing down all the old gods, so be it," wroteSorvino in an open letter to Farrow in HuffPost last week.
Actor Alec Baldwin, who won acclaim for portraying DonaldTrump on Saturday Night Live, has been one of the few topublicly defend Allen, saying it was possible to supportsurvivors of pedophilia and sexual assault, and also believehe was innocent.
Dylan Farrow detailed the alleged abuse for the firsttime in her own words in an open letter published on a NewYork Times blog in 2014.
In a follow-up New York Times op-ed, Allen repeated hisdenial and launched a furious attack on Mia Farrow, denouncingher as "more interested in her own festering anger than herdaughter's well-being."A New York judge who presided over the 1994 custodybattle between Allen and Farrow ruled that the abuseallegations were inconclusive, but at the same time lambastedthe director as "self-absorbed, untrustworthy andinsensitive."Allen remains with Soon-Yi and the couple have twochildren. (AFP)PMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.