Ebbing And Flowing With Woody Allen

Vanity Fair publishes a piece pushing back against some of the Woody Allen support that has passed by this week.

10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation

By Maureen Orth

This week, a number of commentators have published articles containing incorrect and irresponsible claims regarding the allegation of Woody Allen’s having sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. As the author of two lengthy, heavily researched and thoroughly fact-checked articles that deal with that allegation—the first published in 1992, when Dylan was seven, and the second last fall, when she was 28—I feel obliged to set the record straight. As such, I have compiled the following list of undeniable facts:

 

And the facts she presents are not supportive of Allen.

 

The report mentioned below floated across the Inter-tubes recently but of course I can't find it now:

7.   The Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sex Abuse Clinic’s finding that Dylan had not been sexually molested, cited repeatedly by Allen’s attorneys, was not accepted as reliable by Judge Wilk, or by the Connecticut state prosecutor who originally commissioned them. The state prosecutor, Frank Maco, engaged the Yale-New Haven team to determine whether Dylan would be able to perceive facts correctly and be able to repeat her story on the witness stand. The panel consisted of two social workers and a pediatrician, Dr. John Leventhal, who signed off on the report but who never saw Dylan or Mia Farrow. No psychologists or psychiatrists were on the panel. The social workers never testified; the hospital team only presented a sworn deposition by Dr. Leventhal, who did not examine Dylan.

All the notes from the report were destroyed. Her confidentiality was then violated, and Allen held a news conference on the steps of Yale University to announce the results of the case. The report concluded Dylan had trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. (For example, she had told them there were “dead heads” in the attic and called sunset “the magic hour.” In fact, Mia kept wigs from her movies on styrofoam blocks in a trunk in the attic.) The doctor subsequently backed down from his contention.

The Connecticut state police, the state attorney, and Judge Wilk all had serious reservations about the report’s reliability.

And this just in: The NY Times runs Woody Allen's response to Dylan Farrow's open letter. Let me cherry pick this:

The police began their investigation; a possible indictment hung in the balance. I very willingly took a lie-detector test and of course passed because I had nothing to hide. I asked Mia to take one and she wouldn’t.

And back to 10 Undeniable Facts:

3.   Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police. Instead, he took one from someone hired by his legal team. The Connecticut state police refused to accept the test as evidence. The state attorney, Frank Maco, says that Mia was never asked to take a lie-detector test during the investigation.

Allen leans heavily on the Child Sex Abuser Clinic report to establish his innocence.

And I like this line of reasoning:

Even the venue where the fabricated molestation was supposed to have taken place was poorly chosen but interesting. Mia chose the attic of her country house, a place she should have realized I’d never go to because it is a tiny, cramped, enclosed spot where one can hardly stand up and I’m a major claustrophobe. The one or two times she asked me to come in there to look at something, I did, but quickly had to run out.

One of the 10 Facts is this:

8.   Allen changed his story about the attic where the abuse allegedly took place. First, Allen told investigators he had never been in the attic where the alleged abuse took place. After his hair was found on a painting in the attic, he admitted that he might have stuck his head in once or twice. A top investigator concluded that his account was not credible.

To which I will add that an alternative hypothesis is that Allen chose a molestation venue where no one would be likely to look for him.

MORE; Anti-Allen skepticism in Slate, but this is credibility-crushing:

In that segment, Allen tells Kroft that it would have been “illogical” to molest Dylan “at the height of a very bitter, acrimonious custody fight.”

The problem with this line of reasoning is that Dylan Farrow’s allegations did not emerge in the midst of a custody battle. According to Phoebe Hoban’s 1992 New York magazine story, as of early August 1992—eight months after Mia Farrow had discovered Allen’s sexual relationship with her daughter Soon-Yi Previn—Allen had been “prepared to sign a 30-page document that virtually precluded his seeing the children he doted on without a chaperone.” Then, on Aug. 4, 1992, Dylan told her mother that Woody Allen had sexually assaulted her in Mia’s Connecticut home. At that point, Mia and Dylan went to Dylan’s pediatrician, who reported the allegations to authorities.Allen did not sue for custody of Dylan and her two brothers, Moses and Ronan, until Aug. 13, 1992, a week after he was informed of Dylan’s accusations.

Does Slate have editors? If they followed the link provided to the 1992 New York magazine story they will learn that the papers about to be signed in early August were the culmination of many months of negotiation described in the story as including "histrionics worth of a grade-B movie". The subsequent filing of a custody suit was simply the next move in the legal chess match; it hardly indicates that the two sides had been getting along swimmingly beforehand. (bonus laugher, or head-scratcher - part of the negotiation was about whether Mia would appear in Woody's next movie; nice to know she was furious but not that furious.)

That said, the story also includes one of the dumber rhetorical questions I have seen: in commenting on the timing of the alleged incident, an Allen supporter asks "Why would someone on their right mind select the day when they are minutes away from signing papers?". Hmm, so now Woody and Mia are exemplars of mental health and good judgment?

Comments

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

Excellent, Bori!!

[MarkO]

Let us never, no never, forget:

“Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?”

[Beasts of England]

I can't decide which I like more from the overnight lexicon: fibonacci sequence or callipygian backside?

[Threadkiller]

You guys look like the Birth Cert image creation team.

:-)

[Bori]

My vote goes to callipygian backside, but that just me. On the other hand, I'd never look at Math the same way again.

[Beasts of England]

Do y'all really want me to have the ability to upload photos to JOM? I know me. I don't trust me...

[peter]

callipygian backside is redundant.

[peter]

https://twitter.com/BenHowe/status/432185180992720897/photo/1

sure looks like a Sinatra

[narciso]

Soome speaking truth to power:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/02/must-see-manuel-martinez-fled-castros-cuba-destroys-oregon-lawmakers-gun-control-attempt-video/

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Testing...
True the Vote
True the Government

[jimmyk]

Well, peter, we know from the case of our president that a son may look nothing like his father, and a lot like someone note his father, right?

Is this callipygian? Or fibonacci? (I ask purely as a scientific inquiry.)

[jimmyk]

note=not

[narciso]

I would callipgian;

http://www.steynonline.com/6079/yes-we-can-say-that

[narciso]

they never forget do they;

[narciso]

Steyn bring up an interesting line, re Lurch's protestations;

This would be a pretty funny line from the characteristically tin-eared Kerry applied to almost anyone from the Belgian Deputy Tourism Minister on up. But it's especially hilarious directed at Mr Bennett, who's a veteran of two of Israel's toughest special-forces units and could undoubtedly kill the Secretary of State with his bare hands were he minded so to do.

[henry]

Typhus sucks.

From our Chicago friend, NAACP requires photo ID for voting rights march.

[Bori]

Jimmy K,

From a purely scientific poi, I would require more evidence to make a determination.

[narciso]

She's a lawyer in Siberia, from the Daily Mail story...

[narciso]

Well law student more likely;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2535139/Legs-elevenski-Siberian-lawyer-18-wins-Russias-Miss-Longest-Legs-competition-106cm-pins.html

[Captain Hate]

Mr Bennett, who's a veteran of two of Israel's toughest special-forces units and could undoubtedly kill the Secretary of State with his bare hands were he minded so to do.

How can we put him in this mind frame?

[MarkO]

This, too, made me happy:
________________

Meanwhile, Kerry's Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, has been caught on tape and uploaded to YouTube (apparently by the Russians) attempting to broker a Ukraine deal that would as an additional benefit "f**k the EU".

I'd be very happy to endorse the first UK political party to adopt "F**k the EU" as its official slogan, but I'm not sure it's for the US State Department to be road-testing the phrase. And, of course, the attitudinal rhetoric is in forlorn contrast to the shrinking of American power in the world: Talk butchly and carry a small twig.

[narciso]

this is a much better effort, so naturally it's been difficult to get funding;

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174152#.UvaBYvldU0I

[peter]

just don't post steatopygian

[narciso]

I'll take your word for it, peter.

[MarkO]

peter,

There no good reason for you to know that word.

[GMax]

Zero back down to 39% approval. Given near universal approval among blacks, that does not leave many others who approve of the Commie now does it? And if it weren't for Massachusetts, NY and California, it would not even be that good. Perhaps we should make it mandatory to register for the ability to walk around with your head firmly planted in your anus...

[GMax]

steatopygian = fat @ss especially of African descent

[matt]

From Steyn:

"We're not at that point yet. But, raised in the cocoon of conformity that is American academe, the Left is increasingly showing all the critical-thinking skills of your average dimestore mullah."

[peter]

I have been busy, so I have not been assiduously following all the news developments, but apparently the woman who lit the Olympic torch is the same person who tweeted that picture of the Obamas with a banana? Seriously? That is some message that Putin is sending to the rest of the world.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I think Putin's message is fascinating. I'm just not completely sure what it is so far.

[Miss Marple]

peter, I looked at Putin sitting there with satisfaction, along with the president of China, and I do believe that all of this Olympics will be full of such messages.

This is how low we have fallen in respect. Of course, Obama referring to Putin's machismo as "schtick" pretty much guaranteed that stuff like this would happen.

Probably Putin is disgusted and is sending several messages. Frankly, I do not blame him as much as Obama for putting the US in this situation through his low-class and unprofessional talk.

[Captain Hate]

Imo, the message is that he will insult the JEF at any opportunity and he wouldn't do it if he didn't know that Gaylord Focker will be upset by it.

[Captain Hate]

Of course, Obama referring to Putin's machismo as "schtick" pretty much guaranteed that stuff like this would happen.

He never knows when to keep his stupid yap shut. He's such a punk; it must be so easy to get in his empty head on the basketball court and make him melt down. There is no conceivable way he's any good at all.

[narciso]

He's a Russian nationalist, not a communist, akin to Alexander 111, perhaps Nicholas 1, although the impression he want to give off is to Peter the Great, the great mdoernizer or Stolypin who the likes of Soltzhenitsyn thought was Russia's last best hope

[narciso]

Volodya took his lunch, and ate it in front of him, on Syria, which all things being equal,
was possibly the least bad option, It's ridiculous how out of his depth he is with Bandar, who has a whole network in and out of office,

[MarkO]

George Will is unusually good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-president-obamas-magic-words-and-numbers/2014/02/07/220fbc04-8f76-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html

[MarkO]

"There is no conceivable way he's any good at all."

If anyone has a question after watching him, I have a friend who played against him at HLS. He's not good.

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Anyone know of a scarier looking downhill run than that one in Sochi? Looking for a Franz "Der Kaiser" Klammer moment for Bode Miller on Sunday. Been to the Holmenkollen once and it looks like a bunny slope compared to this monster.

[Ignatz]

In case anyone was wondering;

spathic or spathose (ˈspæθɪk, ˈspæθəʊs) — adj (of minerals) resembling spar, esp in having good cleavage

[Captain Hate]

Russia is such a huge country that when Peter the Great was so Eurocentric it must have been offensive to a *lot* of people.

[narciso]

Well they have a strong Eastern orientation, the likes of Nabokov, the traditional Russian liberal boasted of his Mongol forebearers, as do the protagonists in Bely's Petersburg,
they fancy themselves the Third Rome, but the reality is a little different,

[Ignatz]

--callipygian backside is redundant--

The grammar police nab me again.
I'm a cereal offender.

[Beasts of England]

When you post a photo, do you see the picture in the preview if done correctly? Just asking - don't worry. ;)

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

Considering the winter, an answer to why its so cold:

Late fall, the Indians on a remote reservation in North Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.

But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'According to our observations, it looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,' the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'from our latest observations, it's going to be a very cold winter.'

The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again. 'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely,' the man replied. 'It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we've ever seen.'

'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'The Indians are collecting a shitload of firewood'

[Ignatz]

Yes, Beasts.

[centralcal]

Preview usually works for me Beasts, when I remember to use it (shows pic - or not, if I did it wrong).

[Ignatz]

Also, Beasts, any picture larger than 400 pixels in width will be wider than the thread so part of it will be cut off, but if you don't feel like resizing or finding a different size it can be seen in its entirety by anyone right clicking it.

In preview you can see the whole thing but not once it's posted.

[daddy]

First sensible thing Ive heard from an Academic egghead in forever:

The death of the comma? U.S. academic claims punctuation mark could be abolished from English language with 'little loss of clarity'

[Captain Hate]

I dunno, daddy; that sounds more like conceding defeat in trying to teach grammar effectively to me.

[Jack is Back (Again)!]

daddy,

e.e.cummings was years ahead of that curve.

[daddy]

'Nobody has any reason for it (The Comma) that is scientifically sensible and logical in the sense that we know how hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water,' said Professor so and so.

This call for dumping the Comma comes as a local authority in Cambridge England has been criticised over its decision to remove punctuation from street signs.
The policy - which abolishes the use of apostrophes

Typers of the world unite, We have nothing to lose but our possessives!

However, there is pushback:

Kathy Salaman, director of Cambridge-based Good Grammar Company, condemned the the council - saying: 'I know some people think apostrophes are superfluous but we really need them and I think it’s the first step on a slippery slope.'

[miss Marple]

Jack, it is pretty scary, especially since it got colder and the course got icier.

My grandson and I watched it and I mentioned Franz Klammer's 1976 run, which I remembered vividly. So I showed it to him on YouTube, impressing him.

And in the process realized how much better the camera work and announcing was when ABC covered the Olympics, even though it was over 30 years ago with much less technology.

[henry]

Well, given the way academics write gibberish, it is no clear how punctuation of any type makes a difference -- you must have clarity in order to lose any.

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, Ig. I'm still doing it wrong. Probably a good thing...

[Captain Hate]

Maryland's basketball game at Virginia on Monday has been changed from a 7 oclock start to 9 because Gaylord Focker will be in Charlottesville. Can that idiot please just do some real work and stop screwing everybody up with his dumbass pep rallies?

[Threadkiller]

Commas are nothing but trouble:

32. The comma after the figure “4” is offset too much to the right, indicating that it may not have been typed but may instead have been “pasted” in position electronically during the composition of the image.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2012/12/lord-monckton-obama-is-an-illegal-president/

[daddy]

And in this story we learn that UK Mail reporters are blind!

Liz Hurley's Remarkable Likeness to Bill Clinton's Other Lover Monica Lewinsky

[Beasts of England]

Thanks to centralcal, as well.

That's a brutal downhill run! I can't imagine jumping out of the gate for that one. Even if I were young and stupid again. Well, young again...

[Beasts of England]

They are both female, daddy. Other than that...

[Captain Hate]

Dear God; Elizabeth Hurley is a strikingly attractive woman unlike that chunko with low self esteem that the Arkansas Lothario normally attracts.

[Threadkiller]

Maybe their cigar holders are similar?

[Truthbetold]

2004: Stresa, Italy: Many people would say that this photograph, more than any others, clearly demonstrates the coming together of the powerful elites at Bilderberg. Far right is Richard Perle the architect of the Iraq war. Second from right is Jessica Mathews from the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Seated with backs to camera are David Rockefeller and Clinton advisor Vernon Jordan

[boris]

BoE ... using swipe and right click copy this entire comment and paste into the comment box, then click preview.

<img src="http://www.unitedoilco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/i-go-it.png">

[Ignatz]

Well if that's Woody Allen in the middle as Zelig then I guess it really ties this thread together.

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, boris! I guess my source images are not in the proper format, e.g., .png.

[Ignatz]

jpegs, gifs and the vast majority of web photos will post Beasts.
You generally can't post directly from your computer.

[Beasts of England]

From my personal non-callipygian collection. ;)

[spectacle]

Let the unraveling commence.

"In August 2012, Milwaukee County prosecutors filed a petition seeking to launch the John Doe investigation into the recall races prompted by Gov. Scott Walker's legislation to curb the power of state employee unions.

From the outset, the probe focused on possible "illegal campaign coordination between (name redacted), a campaign committee, and certain special interest groups," according to a filing signed by the five district attorneys in the case.

The campaign committee under the microscope?

Almost certainly it's the Friends of Scott Walker, the governor's campaign committee.

"Good guess," said one source familiar with the probe. "That's it."

Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/unsealed-john-doe-filings-reveal-roots-of-recall-probe-b99195982z1-243271991.html#ixzz2sloIbdZV
Follow us: @JournalSentinel on Twitter

[maryrose]

I always had trouble with the proper placement of commas,I must confess, so their loss will not trouble me.
That picture of the Obamas is terrible. Moochelle just can't take a good picture. Just take ones of their daughters. Al least they are photogenic.
I enjoyed watching all the athletes walk in. I wisely avoided Lauer and Costas.I liked the opening show overall.I intend to watch those events i enjoy, like the downhill,speed skating and curling.Glad to see Norway once again do well in cross-country skiing.
Last word on Allen/Farrow. upchuck. Farrow would never have gone as far as she did in the movies without him.I believe Moses. Farrow is a kook. Weakest actress in Hannah and Her Sisters.Dianne Wiest acted circles around her and even Barbara Hershey left her in the dust.
One really good Allen movie had Martin Landau and the gal from Prizzi's Honor in it. It was more of a morality play. Excellent acting.

[Extraneus]

In Firefox, right click on the photo you want and select Copy Image Location. (This will copy the image link.) Then, type the following and paste the image link between the quotes:

<img src="">

For loons, simply type the following:

<img src="http://www.americanfreepress.net/assets/images/Richard_Pearl_etc2.gif"/>

The slash before the > is correct html, but it isn't necessary.

And btw, you don't need a word when it says "can't post empty comment." A single character anywhere outside the < > brackets will do.

[jimmyk]

There are classic examples of sentences whose meaning changes or is unclear without a comma, as in:

"Let's eat, Grandma!"
"Let's eat Grandma!"

[maryrose]

I believe the intent now is to marginalize Scott Walker ala Christie. The dems are starting early to poison the well against repub candidates. In my lifetime,I have never seen dirty politics like this. It is really disgusting.They will not succeed. Lying about O-care will be their undoing. Preezy got no bump from the SOTU. He is done.

[jimmyk]

Here's another eating-related one:

[maryrose]

Beasts,
I just want to tell you that I am really glad you are here.

[jimmyk]

Maryrose, politics has always been dirty. I think it's just that voters have gotten stupider and actually fall for it. Or at least enough do that it can work for the Dems.

[J Deen]

It's truly a tragedy how they marginalized Nixon.

[DrJ]

jimmyk,

Then there is the title of the popular book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves." I for one will never give up the comma.

[henry]

Maryrose, keep in mind this is John Doe II. The first one laid an egg. This one will too. The whole point is for the DA (D-Milwaukee) to satisfy the union thugs by throwing the only stone they have. Policy is a no go, Walker's policy works leading to better schools and lower taxes. Lefty candidates (two time loser Barrett, now Lance Armstrong's party pal the Trek bike gal) are boring and stupid, they poll poorly. So they cook up a secret investigation based on nothing that will find nothing (except the contributor lists the stole in predawn SWAT raids) then fold in December. This pathetic abuse of power is all the left has.

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, maryrose! I'm really glad to be here.

I promised an update on my condition, so I guess I'll sneak it in over on this thread where there's less traffic. ;) In bed sick from the treatments, but smiling that I'm two-fifths of the way through.

I keep getting texts from my younger daughter (who's in New Orleans for her boyfriend's fraternity formal) and she's sending photos and asking what to order for dinner and all that good stuff. I was seriously misguided with my thoughts of calling it a day. Hope that God forgives me for thinking about something so stupid...

[Beasts of England]

lol, DrJ!

[DrJ]

Beasts, hang in there. BTW, the book title was written about a Panda (the animal). Quite a different meaning with and without the first comma, isn't it?

[Beasts of England]

Absolutely, DrJ! And thanks...

[boris]

"politics has always been dirty"

Maybe so but what seems different now is media groupthink allied with unionized government bureaucracy fed by postmodernized education.

The parties that were fighting dirty in earlier times were still fighting over different ways to be American. That does not seem to be the case anymore. The aforementioned entities have adopted a post-American worldview and agenda.

[Ignatz]

--Hope that God forgives me for thinking about something so stupid...--

He already did, before you thought it.

[Ignatz]

Commas are guidance for the correct cadence, and hence meaning, of grammar. It takes a hell of a lot less time to put them in than it does for the reader to sit there struggling with awkward sentences trying to figure out what they're supposed to mean.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

My Olympic Finery

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

WOW Ex, thanks. Now how do I remember that?

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, Ig...

[jimmyk]

The apostrophe is a different situation. I don't know of any other language that uses it for the possessive. But language evolves on its own, why do we need credentialed morons with ideas about changing it, however that would happen? I'll bet that prof was also a fan of Esperanto.

[Beasts of England]

Ĉiuj amas esperanton, jimmyk!

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Say it ain't so, Beasts!

[Bori]

Beasts,

To me Esperanto is like trying to talk to a drunken Spaniard.

[Sue]

House Hunters International is in Panama. I'm scoping out where we want to move.

[Centralcal on iPad]

Been away most of the afternoon, just now dropping in, and I see Beasts has mastered inserting photos ( and a very nice one, at that)!

I love commas, as you can see. Ha!

[Beasts of England]

Thanks, centralcal - she was my first long-term girlfriend after marriage. Maybe I'll give equal time to numero dos if I can remember how to post photos again! ;)

Yeah, bori - Esperatno is not quite as intuitive as I had hoped...

[Chris Christie]

Why would someone sexually assault someone? That's crazy and disgusting.

It's strange that when discussing an illogical and irrational act, people are asking hypothetical questions on the basis of what would be the most logical way to go about doing said act.

[Beasts of England]

Second long-term girlfriend. In the interest of fairness, of course.