(Newser)
– Mia Farrow says her biggest regret is meeting Woody Allen, and that she is “scared” of the Oscar-winning screenwriter / director 30 years after her tumultuous separation, in a new documentary, the result of a two-year investigation. Allen v. Farrow covers the best years of Allen and Farrow’s relationship in the 1970s; the scandal that broke out after Farrow discovered what she says are nude photos of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn at Allen’s apartment in the 1990s; and the allegations of abuse against Allen raised by another of Farrow’s adopted daughters, Dylan Farrow, for People. Dylan, now 35, claims that Allen sexually abused her when she was 7 years old in 1992. “I remember my mom telling me and [brother Ronan Farrow], ‘Dad took pictures of Soon-Yi naked.’ And that was the first time I thought, ‘Oh … it’s not just me,’ “she said in the four-episode series that debuted on Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
“I wish I never met him,” said Mia, 76. “That’s my biggest regret in my life, bringing someone like him who should never have been in the family.” She adds that she is “scared” of Allen and what he will do in response to the doctor. “He will do whatever it takes to try to save himself from the truth, from the mess he made,” she says. Allen, 85, has repeatedly denied Dylan’s abuse, including in his 2020 memoirs. He expressed no regret for his relationship with Previn, whom he married in 1997, but wrote that he understood Mia’s “shock” and “anger” . Previn was 20 when the scandal broke, but the series suggests that Allen’s relationship with her began in his final year of high school. At the Vanity Fair, Cassie da Costa emphasizes the meticulousness of the doc, who “does her best to put very obscure facts at the forefront of a story that was long ago told through the lens of the PR spin” (Read more stories by Woody Allen.)