A DORY PREVIN SONG ABOUT MIA FARROW - PS, buy Woody Allen's new book

    If you’re a fan of Woody Allen, you’ll be amused, fascinated and surprised by what’s in his memoir, the one that gutless Hachette refused to publish. Do you know the background on that? They were fine with it, until Ronan Farrow vowed never to write for Hachette again unless they scuttled the book. So much for Freedom of Speech. 

     Ronan's the guy who went bonkers claiming NBC censored a piece he wanted to do on Harvey Weinstein. Yet he wants to censor a book. Well, who said he's a journalist? Mama Mia and nepotism got him a TV show (which failed, despite his oh-so-pink-lipped cutie-pie looks) and you can bet that without a huge staff at The New Yorker he couldn't figure out how to end a sentence with a period. Oh, periods...sorry, the guy wouldn't know from those, and only exposes heterosexuals (Les Moonves, Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen) and turns away from, say, Kevin Spacey's crimes and misdemeanors.

       Turns out he’s not above threats and extortion. It worked. The wussy fools at Hachette caved but another publisher decided Woody's story deserves to be told. It's fair to say most people who buy it (gee, people still BUY when they can download free!) will do it not particularly for the scandal involving The Three Farrows, but for his frank and often self-deprecating descriptions of his life and his films. Woody backs up all his remarks on the Farrow loons with facts and testimony from neutral parties.

    Which leads us to the musical interlude below. It’s a song Dory Previn wrote about the totallly UN-neurotic and UN-scheming Mia Farrow…after Mia took away Dory’s husband, Andre Previn. I’ll let Woody fill you in on it. Tap below and both paragraphs will appear....

    There’s been so much downright stupid gossip about Woody Allen over the years. Some of it he debunks in the book, like the notion he only dates very young women. No, he dated only two, really. The first one became personified by Mariel Hemingway in the comedy-drama “Manhattan.” The second was Soon-Yi Previn (not his daughter...Mia's adopted daughter). She was 22 at the time, and he'd known her for many years (and they disliked each other) before the sparks began. They have been married over 20 years - his third marriage being a total success, especially compared to his previous two and Mia's two). No, Mia and Woody were never married. 

      Woody might be, #metoo shrieking to the contrary, one of the most respectful guys when it comes to women. Most of his staff are women (nobody can say he hit on them or any of his leading ladies). Many of his films have female protagonists, and have won awards for Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”) and Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”) among others. This prolific genius has filled the screen with great roles for women and portrayed them with dialogue and scenes that one might think only an authoress could create.

    Oh, did I use the term genius? Woody doesn’t. Revelations throughout the book include honest skewerings of his own stardom. No, he considers himself something of a dolt for all the books he has NOT read, and for films he made that he admits didn’t succeed, and for being a mediocre clarinet player who people see for who he is and not how he sounds. The book has a lot of chuckles and witty lines, but unlike some of his arch, too-Perelman New Yorker pieces, not to the point of being a distraction. He tends to resist going for the cheap laugh, although by nature, he is a humorist who can’t help ad-libbing a comic truth.

    I could go on, but you’d think I was a friend of his. Fan yes. I’ve only met him a few times. He’s a nice, humble guy, and I don’t think too many who don’t have Farrow for a last name would disagree. (Mia I've merely seen. Maybe from six feet away, which was close enough to take some photos and not get the flu. Her beauty had an undercurrent to it, a fragility if you will. Or a seeming vulnerability. Which does make tales about her Ms. Hyde side of nutsiness and Mommy Dearest violence a bit of a shock.) Here's Dory, who was very much influenced by the "art song," and sometimes used water color rather than an acid pen. My own favorite of hers is "Doppelganger." No, not "The Comedian" which is a bit much (circus music and too comical a beat). It's more a nose tweek about some hack jokester, rather than a meditation on what's funny and what isn't. Woody would tell you Groucho is funny.  Dory believed we are "Children of Coincidence and Harpo Marx."