Ronan Farrow responds to NBC executive reportedly calling him a 'terrorist'
'Catch and Kill' author Ronan Farrow reacts and weighs in on corruption in the media, Weinstein reporting.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow blasted his own book publisher in a scathing statement, accusing Hachette Book Group of “wildly unprofessional” behavior and severed ties to the company because it “concealed” that it was working with his estranged father Woody Allen.
Farrow’s “Catch and Kill” was released last year by the Hachette division Little, Brown and Co., but the celebrity scion is outraged the publisher hid the fact that it was working with Allen at the same time.
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“I was disappointed to learn through press reports that Hachette, my publisher, acquired Woody Allen’s memoir after other major publishers refused to do so and concealed the decision from me and its own employees while we were working on ‘Catch and Kill’ – a book about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse,” Farrow said in a statement posted on his social media accounts.
Ronan Farrow blasted his own book publisher, accusing Hachette Book Group of “wildly unprofessional” behavior and severed ties to the company over working with Woody Allen.
Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, announced Monday that Allen’s book is called “Apropos of Nothing” and will be released April 7. Dylan Farrow, Ronan’s sister, has long said that Allen molested her as a child in the early 1990s.
“Hachette did not fact check the Woody Allen book. My sister Dylan has never been contacted to respond to any denial or mischaracterization of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Woody Allen – a credible allegation, maintained for almost three decades, backed up by contemporaneous accounts and evidence,” Farrow continued. “It’s wildly unprofessional in multiple obvious directions for Hachette to behave this way.”
A rep for Allen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Farrow, son of actress Mia Farrow and Allen, has long sided with his mother and siblings amid a series of accusations against the filmmaker. He said the publisher’s actions show “a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse” and called for the company to meticulously examine Allen’s claims.
This combination photo shows a book cover image for "Apropos of Nothing," an autobiography by Woody Allen, to be released on April 7. (Grand Central Publishing via AP, left, and AP Photo)
“I’ve encouraged Hachette, out of respect for its readers, authors and reputation, to conduct a thorough fact check of Woody Allen’s account, in particular any claim that implies my sister is not telling the truth,” Farrow said. ”I’ve also told Hachette that a publisher that would conduct itself in this way is one I can’t work with in good conscience.”
Hachette Book Group did not immediately respond to a series of questions, including whether or not Allen’s book will be fact-checked.
The “Manhattan” director was accused of molesting his adopted daughter, Dylan, when she was 7. She recounted the allegations in a 2014 essay for The New York Times, as well as in an interview with "CBS This Morning" in 2018. Allen has denied the accusations.
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Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein and other men accused of sexual misconduct has been widely praised and helped launch the #MeToo movement. NBC News famously refused to air his explosive reporting on the now-convicted sex offender Weinstein, but The New Yorker jumped at the opportunity to publish the story and won the Pulitzer Prize. “Catch and Kill” details Farrow’s theories on why NBC passed on the report.
New York, NY- October 4: Catch and Kill author Ronan Farrow in New York City on October 4, 2019. (Credit: Mary Inhea Kang for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Back in May, The New York Times reported that Allen “quietly tried to sell a memoir” but was “met with indifference or hard passes” amid the #MeToo movement changing the way accusations are treated.
“With his career all but derailed by resurfaced allegations that he molested his daughter Dylan Farrow nearly three decades ago — allegations that Allen denies and that have left Americans unsure whom to believe — the prospect of publishing his memoir seems to hold little appeal,” the Times wrote. “Some publishing executives used the word ‘toxic’ when describing the challenges of working with Allen in the current environment, noting that while he remains a significant cultural figure, the commercial risks of releasing a memoir by him were too daunting.”
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It seems Hachette decided the risks are worth the potential reward, but Dylan called the upcoming release “deeply upsetting” in a statement late Monday.
“Hachette’s publishing of Woody Allen’s memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally and an utter betrayal of my brother, whose brave reporting, capitalized on by Hachette, gave voice to numerous survivors of sexual assault by powerful men," Dylan Farrow said
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.