In the docks again!

Woody Allen contends that renewed accusations by the filmmaker’s adopted daughter that he sexually abused her at age 7 are “

Woody Allen

” a spokeswoman for the director said on Sunday, a day after her letter detailing the allegations shook up Hollywood.
Dylan Farrow, 28, the daughter of Allen’s former girlfriend, actress Mia Farrow, challenged the acclaim the 78-year-old Oscar-winner has received in recent years, as she told her side of the decades-old case in an open letter published by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, a friend of the Farrows.
The allegation that Woody Allen abused Dylan Farrow first surfaced around the time of his 1992 split with Mia Farrow. Allen wasn’t arrested or prosecuted in the case. An investigation was conducted by court-appointed experts who did not find enough evidence to support a case against Allen. “Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon,” spokeswoman Leslee Dart said in an email. Legal experts said that if prosecutors felt there was enough evidence from Dylan Farrow, it may still be too late under U.S. law to bring a case against Allen in Connecticut, where the incident is alleged to have occurred at the Farrow home.
To get a jury to convict Allen, a prosecutor would need to show he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, based on evidence such as testimony from Dylan Farrow. That could present a high standard to overcome decades after the original allegations. The passage of time has likely barred the possibility Allen could be prosecuted on sexual abuse charges, said Todd Fernow, a law professor at the University of Connecticut. Under Connecticut law, the statute of limitations for all but the most serious sexual crimes lasts for five years from when a police report is filed, which if applied to Dylan Farrow’s claim of having been abused in 1992 would have run until 1997, Fernow said. Connecticut state prosecutor Frank Maco in 1993 declined to bring charges against Allen and retired in 2003. He declined to speculate about whether a criminal case could be brought based on the allegations Dylan Farrow has outlined. But he added that whether the statute of limitations had passed would depend on several factors including the nature of the evidence and changes in the law in the past decade.
Maco said that he examined the question before he retired and did not believe then a criminal case was still possible. “When I left office, I was satisfied that the statute of limitations had long run in that case,” he said.

Amid awards season

Dylan Farrow’s open letter comes in the midst of the Hollywood awards season and after Allen received a lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes ceremony, an honour that prompted negative comments about Allen from Mia Farrow and Dylan’s brother Ronan Farrow.
Blue Jasmine, the latest film from the critically acclaimed director, has three Oscar nominations and voting for the March 2 Academy Awards is due to begin February 14.

Challenging Hollywood

Dylan Farrow in her piece questioned why Allen, the winner of four Oscars, is widely revered and she publicly challenged stars who have appeared in his films, including Blanchett and co-star Alec Baldwin, asking them how they would feel if they had a child who suffered the abuse that she said she did. Blanchett responded to the allegation at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, telling the blog Hollywood Elsewhere: “I mean, it’s obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some sort of resolution and peace.”
A spokesman for Alec Baldwin declined to comment.
Lena Dunham, the writer and actress behind the HBO show Girls, who has apparently not worked with Allen, urged her followers on Twitter to read Dylan Farrow’s account. “To share in this way is courageous, powerful and generous,” Dunham wrote.