Actor Alec Baldwin defended Woody Allen Sunday by comparing Allen’s accuser and adopted daughter Dylan Farrow to a literary character who falsely accuses a man of rape. Director Judd Apatow then blasted Baldwin by comparing him to President Trump.
In Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is the character who falsely accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping her. Atticus Finch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel’s hero, defends Robinson, who was arrested, and he goes on to prove that Mayella is lying. Nevertheless, the all-white jury convicts Robinson, and he is later killed while trying to escape.
The novel’s antagonist is not a person so much as it is the racist fury of emotion whipped up by the idea of a black man’s touching a white woman.
With this in mind, in defense of Woody Allen, Baldwin tweeted Sunday, “1 of the most effective things Dylan Farrow has in her arsenal is the ‘persistence of emotion.’ Like Mayella in TKAM [To Kill a Mockingbird], her tears/exhortations r meant 2 shame u in2 belief in her story.” He added, “But I need more than that before I destroy some1, regardless of their fame. I need a lot more”:
The homophobic Baldwin followed this up by linking a Sunday New York Times story — which is basically an obituary declaring Allen’s career over — with a tweet that asked, “To say that @RealDylanFarrow is telling the truth is to say that @MosesFarrow is lying. Which of Mia’s kids got the honesty gene and which did not?”:
While Dylan Farrow stands by her claim that Allen molested her 25 years ago, Moses Farrow, Allen’s adopted son, says the molestation never happened. He was 14 and in the house at the time of the alleged incident and says Allen was never alone with seven-year-old Dylan. Moses further claims that his and Dylan’s Mother, Mia Farrow, coached Dylan to lie.
Moses also alleges Mia physically and mentally abused him.
Nevertheless, while shoveling dirt on Allen’s career, the Times failed to mention Moses’s testimony in defense of his father.
Caring about none of this, Judd Apatow — who is always quick to condemn and shame, even as he remains silent about the allegations against his frequent collaborator James Franco — pounced on Baldwin. He started by describing Baldwin as an old man “on the edge of death trying to control our country’s future.”
“Just what we need, more old men on the edge of death trying to control our country’s future right as they spiral into the dark abyss where they will not pay the price for all of their corruption and environmental polluting. All to get more money they will be too dead to spend”:
Referring to Baldwin’s Trump impersonation on Saturday Night Live, Apatow also tweeted, “Alec Baldwin has been playing Trump too long and is losing his sense of where he ends and Trump begins.”
As of now, Baldwin has not responded. Dylan, however, has, and she attacked Baldwin in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter: “Considering that Mr. Baldwin confidently invoked Mayella Ewell to make his point while forgetting that it’s been hotly debated that she was, in fact, raped by her father, demonstrates that perhaps Baldwin is just not a stickler for details.”
In 1993, authorities in Connecticut and New York thoroughly investigated Allen. No charges were ever filed. Authorities who specialize in child molestation cases unambiguously cleared Allen of all wrongdoing. Moreover, the official report accused Mia of coaching Dylan.
Despite these facts, the Hollywood campaign to blacklist Allen is in full swing, with actors, including those who have worked with Allen in the past, declaring him socially unacceptable to work with.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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