Actor Alec Baldwin continues to profess his undying support of Woody Allen in spite of disturbing, recently resurfaced allegations against the filmmaker.
Baldwin took to Twitter on Sunday night to let everybody know, as if there were any doubt, that he is still firmly in Allen's corner. The veteran actor used his ABFoundation account, after half-quitting Twitter himself months ago following an intense backlash on the social networking site.
Aside from reiterating his support for Allen, he also simultaneously compared his adopted daughter and accuser, Dylan Farrow, to Mayella Ewell, the character in To Kill A Mockingbird who falsely accuses an innocent man of rape.
He blasted Farrow personally in a series of tweets, claiming that she's using emotional manipulation to get her story heard. Baldwin added that Farrow's brother, Moses, who denies her claims, should also have a say.
Moses recently went on record to dispute his sister's claims in the book Start to Finish: Woody Allen and the Art of Moviemaking. He claimed that their mother, the actress Mia Farrow, was abusive and brainwashed the children against Allen.
1 of the most effective things Dylan Farrow has in her arsenal is the “persistence of emotion.” Like Mayella in TKAM, her tears/exhortations r meant 2 shame u in2 belief in her story.
But I need more than that before I destroy some1, regardless of their fame.
I need a lot more.— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) January 28, 2018
If my defense of Woody Allen offends you, it’s real simple.
Unfollow.
Condemn.
Move on.— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) January 28, 2018
Dylan Farrow responded to Baldwin's tweets in a statement on Sunday.
"It's interesting that Mr. Baldwin chooses to dismiss the judgments of Justice Wilk and Prosecutor Frank Maco, who reviewed ALL of the evidence instead of just selected bits and pieces," she said. "However, 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."
Farrow has doubled down on her efforts to expose her adopted father in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements. She believes Allen has been unfairly let off the hook while men like Harvey Weinstein are publicly lambasted for their crimes.
Farrow initially wrote about the alleged abuse, which happened when she was 7 years old, in a couple of op-eds published in Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Her brother, Ronan Farrow, was instrumental in bringing the accusations against Weinstein into the public eye via his own writing.
She appeared in her first televised interview on the subject just a couple of weeks ago, telling CBS This Morning's Gayle King that she was angry, outraged, and hurt over years of disbelief.
"All I can do is speak my truth and hope . . . hope that somebody will believe me instead of just hearing," she said.
Farrow's renewed efforts have led to actors including Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, and Timothée Chalamet distancing themselves from Allen and, in certain cases, even pledging to donate their salaries from working on his films to women's aid organizations.
Baldwin, on the other hand, has doubled down on his efforts to defend the filmmaker. He's previously called into question the legitimacy of Farrow's claims, suggesting that the treatment of Allen has been unfair and sad. He's consistently pointed to the lack of formal charges against him.
Baldwin has also publicly supported filmmaker James Toback, who has been accused by multiple high-profile actresses of sexual misconduct. He told the L.A. Times that the reports against Toback were unfair and misleading, arguing that he's simply a ladies man with a great intellect who has made some mistakes.
