Ronan Farrow and Woody Allen now share a publisher.
Here’s an odd and unpleasant piece of news: with today’s announcement that Woody Allen’s long-rumored memoir is no longer just a rumor, and will in fact be hitting shelves next month, Allen and his estranged son Ronan Farrow—who has dedicated much of his journalistic career to uncovering accusations of sexual abuse against powerful men in the entertainment industry—now share a publisher.
Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, acquired the rights to Allen’s memoir, entitled Apropos of Nothing, a year ago after several other publishing houses, citing #MeToo concerns, passed on the manuscript. Meanwhile, Little, Brown and Company, another division of Hachette Book Group, published Farrow’s Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, in October of last year.
As Maris Kreizman detailed in Vanity Fair last November, this kind of thing is depressingly common in the political books sphere, as four of the five major publishing houses have imprints specifically dedicated to right-wing authors. What that means is that Michelle Obama has to share a publishing house with Donald Trump Jr., E. Jean Carroll with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, et cetera, et cetera. Somehow, though, this one feels even grubbier.
Allen, a four-time Oscar-winner who married his longtime partner’s adopted daughter, has been largely shunned by Hollywood since accusations that he molested his daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child resurfaced in 2014. A subsequent investigation found no actionable evidence of abuse, but Dylan Farrow stood firmly by her allegations and has been supported in them by her brother Ronan. Whether or not Allen addresses any of this in his memoir remains to be seen.
[h/t The Hollywood Reporter]
Correction: March 3, 2020
An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Woody Allen married his adopted daughter. It has been brought to our attention this assertion is both factually incorrect and a gross misrepresentation of Allen’s character. Woody Allen did not, of course, marry his adopted daughter—that would have been depraved. Woody Allen married the adopted daughter of his longtime partner. This is, of course, very different and we apologize profusely for the error.
