Woody Allen isn't sitting quietly. The somewhat reclusive Hollywood legend is finally taking the steps to respond to his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's shocking New York Times Op-Ed piece, which claimed the director "sexually assaulted" her at the age of 7.
"They asked and we said, 'Yes, send it in,'" Andrew Rosenthal, The Times' editorial page editor, said of Allen to the NY Times' public editor, Margaret Sullivan.
The door has been opened, but there's no concrete plans on whether or not Allen's rebuttal will be edited — or published at all. "It comes down to the editing process" as a full Op-Ed piece, Rosenthal continued. "Normally, we don't publish a direct response." He added: "In this case, it was so personal, we thought that we should."
Farrow, 28, is the adopted daughter of Allen, 77, and his ex Mia Farrow, 68. The pair welcomed Dylan in 1987, along with adopted son Moses. The exes also welcomed son Ronan that same year. Mia filed charges of molestation against Allen during their 1992 custody battle. The case was later dropped.
In Dylan's bombshell letter, she detailed the alleged abuse she experienced with the Oscar-winning filmmaker. "He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we'd go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies," she wrote. "I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains."
On Feb 4, Mia responded to the letter. "I love my daughter. I will always protect her," she tweeted. "A lot of ugliness is going to be aimed at me. But this is not about me, it's about her truth."
Allen has continued to maintain his innocence throughout the years. His lawyer Alkan Abramowitz released a statement shortly after Dylan's letter went live. "It is tragic that after 20 years a story engineered by a vengeful lover resurfaces," he told CNN on Feb. 3. "The one to blame for Dylan's distress is neither Dylan nor Woody Allen."