At the risk of sounding glib about a very serious subject, I guess we're going to do this again, huh? We're going to once again re-litigate a 24-year-old case that's already played out twice before in exacting detail but to the satisfaction of almost no one. We're going to do ...read more
(Photo: Olivier Douliery/MCT) There's a reason the court of public opinion isn't allowed to make rulings, decide cases and send people to prison. There's a reason it's considered so toxic to the pursuit of actual justice that jurors are often shielded from it and judges will ...read more
Patrick Perion is a child abuse investigator in Illinois. If you investigate child abuse for more than 20 years, you learn a few things. One thing you learn is just when you think you've seen and heard it all, you haven't. In what can only be termed a completely insane ...read more
I have a confession to make and it's one that anyone who follows the After Party podcast that I do with Bob Cesca already knows: I've been watching Girls this season and not entirely disliking it. Once you wrap your head around the fact that almost every female character on it ...read more
Ronan Farrow's close friend Jon Lovett, a former presidential speechwriter and TV producer, is now involving himself in the public battle between the claims of Dylan Farrow and those of Woody Allen, and he's doing it via Twitter. We've officially reached the enough-is-enough ...read more
It's Friday and you're probably ready to get out the door as quickly as possible and start your weekend, but here are a few headlines and internet tidbits to kill time until you can make your escape. 1. Black and White and Red All Over While Dylan Farrow is crying during her ...read more
"My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister. And I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi... Of course Woody did not molest my sister. ...read more
It's Wednesday and it feels like a Wednesday. Here's what's happening on the interweb: 1. UN Report: Syria Child Abuse By Rebels, Government Troops 'Is Unspeakable And Unacceptable' Western-backed opposition groups in Syria are recruiting refugee children in neighboring ...read more
As the back and forth between the Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen camps gets increasingly contentious and each side's version of events gets pored over in greater and greater detail, there are some troubling facts emerging (and re-emerging) about Mia Farrow that quite seriously ...read more
One of the most astute comments you'll read in response to the recent revival of the Woody Allen sex assault controversy is from a guy named Chris Rasmussen. In a letter to the New York Times' Public Editor Margaret Sullivan, Rasmussen, who's an associate professor at Fairleigh ...read more
by Patrick Perion Patrick Perion is a child abuse investigator in Illinois. In this article he gives his professional opinion on the Woody Allen/Dylan Farrow abuse case. The author notes that this post may be triggering. The subject of child abuse and in particular child ...read more
Earlier today, Dan Abrams and I appeared on Fusion TV's "America" with host Jorge Ramos to discuss Dylan Farrow's open letter and the reaction to it. It was an admirably thorough segment, one that attempted to dissect both the legal and cultural ramifications the resuscitated ...read more
Over the past few weeks, the Farrow family have used various outlets to publicly attack Woody Allen for his alleged abuse of his daughter, Dylan Farrow. Having only seen a handful of Woody Allen's films and being dimly aware of the family troubles, I don't mind admitting that ...read more
Photo: Frances Silver If you haven't read Dylan Farrow's viscerally affecting open letter in yesterday's New York Times, you should. As a matter of practicality it will help you to understand why Twitter has been on fire for the past 24-hours, with detractors and defenders of ...read more
I'm a very big fan of Woody Allen. There are no two ways about that. I think he's a genius as a filmmaker and writer and in many ways I owe my absurdist sense of humor to an early exposure to books like Without Feathers and movies like Sleeper, Love & Death, Bananas and Annie ...read more
