Ronan Farrow Challenges The Media To Ask Woody Allen About His Abuse Charges

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Bill Cosby’s career is probably over. No matter the verdict in his upcoming trial, the Cosby Show star, who’s had his NBC show and Netflix special canceled since over 50 women accused him of assault, likely won’t work again. Meanwhile, Woody Allen, who’s also been accused of doing some horrible things, has an upcoming Amazon series and his most recent movie, Café Society, premieres at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s one thing when Cosby’s on-screen son Malcolm-Jamal Warner wants to know why the two equally famous comedians are receiving “unbalanced” treatment — it’s another when the question comes from Woody’s actual son, Ronan Farrow.

Farrow, who once tweeted, “Did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall” after the Golden Globes’ tribute to Allen, penned a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter about how the media has handled accusations against his estranged father. He points to the 936 words, online only, that the New York Times gave to his sister Dylan, who wrote that Allen “sexually assaulted me,” versus the Paper of Record giving “her alleged attacker twice the space — and prime position in the print edition… It was a stark reminder of how differently our press treats vulnerable accusers and powerful men who stand accused.”

Tonight, the Cannes Film Festival kicks off with a new Woody Allen film. There will be press conferences and a red-carpet walk by my father and his wife (my sister). He’ll have his stars at his side — Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg. They can trust that the press won’t ask them the tough questions. It’s not the time, it’s not the place, it’s just not done.

That kind of silence isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous. It sends a message to victims that it’s not worth the anguish of coming forward. It sends a message about who we are as a society, what we’ll overlook, who we’ll ignore, who matters and who doesn’t. (Via)

Farrow concludes, “It’s time to ask some hard questions.” Read the rest of his essay at the Hollywood Reporter.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

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