Woody Allen’s son has reiterated sexual abuse allegations against his father, just as the filmmaker is set to unveil his new movie at Cannes.
The director’s film Cafe Society – starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively – is opening the festival on the French Riviera tonight.
The premiere prompted a guest column from Woody’s son Ronan Farrow, which was posted online by The Hollywood Reporter minutes before the director and his stars gathered for a press conference.
Ronan’s letter resurrected claims that Woody had molested his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child.
It questioned the festival’s and the media’s continued embrace of the 80-year-old director.
He wrote: “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, Soon-Yi Previn). 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.”
Woody has previously denied molesting Dylan, whose adoptive mother is his ex Mia Farrow.
The allegations were first levelled at him in 1992 when Dylan was seven and Woody and Mia were in the midst of a bitter split.
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