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Mia Farrow slams Woody Allen in tell-all book

Farrow and kids February 5, 1997
Web posted at: 11:20 p.m. EST

NEW YORK (Reuter) -- Mia Farrow's long-awaited memoir on life with Woody Allen hit bookstores Wednesday, painting the director-comedian as more neurotic than anyone he ever played in one of his films.

Forget Valentine's Day. In "What Falls Away," Farrow wrote a poison pen letter accusing Allen of bizarre behavior culminating in his seducing one of her adopted daughters and possibly sexually molesting another.

But some pages in Farrow's 370-page book read like scenes from a Woody Allen comedy -- such as his early habit of asking his secretary to call Farrow to arrange dates and never directly doing it himself. Alone with her, he could not bring himself to say her name.

Woody Allen

"Woody Allen was connected to his doctors like no one I ever heard of: he had a doctor for every single part of his body. Whenever one of his movies came out he'd have a screening for his doctors and their wives. It was called 'The Doctor's Screening' and the room was always full," she wrote, adding that if Allen felt the least bit ill he would take his temperature every 10 minutes.

"He kept his own thermometer at my apartment. In his pocket he kept a silver box of pills for any conceivable ailment."


A romance gone down the drain

Farrow, whose 1992 child custody battle with Allen made international headlines, said one of their oddest moments together came when he discovered the drain to the shower in her new country house was in the middle and not the side.

"'What happened? I asked, 'What's wrong?' 'The drain is in the middle,' he said, shaking his head dismissively as if I should have known."

Farrow had to build another shower with the drain at the side.

Farrow said that in her years with Allen, "There were three of us in the relationship: Woody, his shrink and me. No decisions were ever made without her. He didn't even buy sheets without talking to her. I know that part of several sessions went into his switch from polyester-satin to cotton."

In the book Farrow described her shock at first discovering Allen had taken pornographic photos of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn and then that he was having an affair with the 17-year-old.

Farrow also wrote of her 7-year-old daughter Dylan, accusing Allen of sexually molesting her -- a charge Allen strongly denied. He was never charged.

Farrow described Allen as being obsessed with Dylan, saying, "He whispered her awake, he caressed her and entwined his body around her as she watched television, as she played on the floor, as she ate, as she slept. He brought her into bed when he was wearing only his underpants. Twice I made him take his thumb out of her mouth."

The actress, who was married and divorced from Frank Sinatra and conductor Andre Previn, said she cannot explain why she continued her relationship with Allen for so long.

Woody Allen's spokeswoman, Leslie Dart, said he would have no comment on the book. Told that Farrow had used the volume to make numerous accusations against her employer, Dart replied: "I'm not surprised. She's been doing that for four years."

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