WHAT MAKES RONAN RUN?

BY: Michael Arkin

If Mia Farrow was more like her Bridgewater, Connecticut neighbors, her car might have a bumper sticker heralding her son, Ronan’s achievements. Instead of lauding him as student of the month, hers might read ‘My son graduated college at 15, started Yale Law School at 16, joined the State Department at 21, was Hillary Clinton’s special adviser for global youth issues, became a Rhodes Scholar at 24 and won the Pulitzer Prize at 31’.

Unless she’s tooling around the neighborhood in a Mack truck, the list would have to end there because there wouldn’t be enough room to list all of her 32-year-old son’s accomplishments. She’d have to omit his being a member of the New York Bar Association, and having written two New York Times bestselling books — War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence and Catch and Kill. Add to that being a youth spokesman for UNICEF in Angola and Sudan, being President Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009, and the youngest solo host on MSNBC when his show, Ronan Farrow Daily debuted in 2014. Let’s not forget some additional achievements including making Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, Vanity Fair’s International Best-Dressed list, releasing a series of podcasts based on his latest book, and inking a deal with HBO for an investigative documentary series. There are more feats, but listing them would be gilding the lily, don’t you think?

Despite all of his successes, Mr. Farrow’s most impactful may be the series of articles he penned for The New Yorker, which earned him the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and recognition as one of the catalysts of the #MeToo Movement. His articles were among the first to expose the sexual misdeeds of movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein as well as allegations against CBS honcho, Les Moonves, and payments made by The National Enquirer to squelch negative stories about Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

Although Trump’s shockingly inappropriate Access Hollywood tape didn’t derail his bid for the presidency, it did motivate women to come forward and expose the sexual transgressions of public figures and high-ranking executives including Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, along with Matt Lauer and Bill Cosby. One of the most notorious offenders was Harvey Weinstein who, over the course of two decades, not only developed a reputation for sexually harassing women, but created a culture of complicity, first at Miramax and then at The Weinstein Company. What the abrasive, thug-like bully lacked in physical attractiveness he made up for in power, which included his ability to “crush” people. He yielded that power at will to sexually exploit female employees and some very famous actresses including Mira Sorvino and Roseanna Arquette, whose careers suffered at his hand.

 

 

Reporting on the story for The New York Times, journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey revealed numerous accusations of harassment against Weinstein that resulted in the resignation of four male board members and Weinstein’s dismissal from The Weinstein Company. Knowing that there was more to the story, Farrow spent ten months investigating it, during which time thirteen women told him they had been sexually harassed, assaulted or in three cases, raped by Weinstein. To a one, all of the accusers told Farrow that they feared retaliation. Sharing the award with The New York Times, his articles on Weinstein’s predation won The New Yorker the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service.

If you’re feeling inadequate after reviewing Mr. Farrow’s CV, you’re not alone. More than likely you didn’t read Kafka’s Metamorphosis in elementary school or grow up with 3 biological and 11 adopted brothers and sisters like he did. So how did he, growing up in the white-hot glare of his parents’ celebrity amid gossip of infidelity, incest and questions about his paternity, avoid the pitfalls that often befall the offspring of the rich and famous? While so many Hollywood progenies have made careers of sitting back and riding on their parents’ coattails and trust funds, it appears that Mr. Farrow was determined to one-up them.

Named for Hall of Fame pitcher, Satchel Paige, Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow was born to actress Mia Farrow and Academy Award-winning director Woody Allen on December 19, 1987. The couple, who met in 1979, never married or even lived together. She resided on the Westside of Manhattan with her brood of children and a menagerie of pets, while Allen lived across Central Park, on the Eastside. In January 1992 Ms. Farrow discovered nude pictures of her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, then 21, in Mr. Allen’s apartment. Not surprisingly, Allen and Farrow parted ways, and some six months later, Allen professed his love for his kind-of stepdaughter. Just a few weeks later, Dylan, Ms. Farrow’s 7-year-old adopted daughter disclosed that Mr. Allen had sexually abused her.

 

Suddenly Mia Farrow, who had gotten her start on Peyton Place, television’s first primetime soap opera, was living one. Ronan, then 5, was caught up in the nasty custody battle that followed and suddenly the golden-haired boy’s disobedient behavior towards Mr. Allen was fodder for the courtroom and the tabloids. Ultimately Allen lost custody. As reported in The New York Times, Ronan told an interviewer, “He’s my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression.”

The acrimony between Farrow and Woody Allen has not diminished. Just this week, Mr. Farrow severed his relationship with his book publisher, Hachette Book Group, when he learned that they will be releasing Allen’s memoir, Apropos of Nothing in April. According to Farrow, “It is wildly unprofessional in multiple directions for Hachette to behave this way. But it also shows a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse regardless of any personal connection or breach of trust here.”

Given the very public airing of his family’s dirty laundry, rife with sexual abuse and the breaking of sacred bonds, it’s not surprising that Mr. Farrow, urged on by his sister, Dylan, herself a victim of sexual abuse, became a crusader for victims of sexual misconduct whose assailants held positions of power. Aside from Harvey Weinstein, the subjects of his investigations for The New Yorker include Supreme Court Judge, Brett Kavanaugh, New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, and Donald Trump.

 

A renaissance man, Farrow’s interests extend way beyond the #MeToo movement. Having done advocacy for youth in Africa, he started writing about policy issues in that part of the world. Then, appreciating Ronan’s precocity, veteran diplomat, Richard Holbrooke (who brokered the peace in Bosnia) asked him to join his Afghanistan team, a new unit that would look at opportunities to replace the existing hyper-militarized approach in order to achieve a political settlement in Afghanistan. Farrow said, “Henry Kissinger told me to always say yes to Richard Holbrooke, so I did.”

The precociousness and interest that Mr. Farrow exhibited at such an early age is not easily explained, but as he told Vanity Fair, “I grew up across the table from (my brother) Moses, who has cerebral palsy, and next to my sister Quincy, born of a drug-addicted inner-city mother, and Minh, who is blind. I saw problems and needs, so the next thing you think is: O.K., what are you going to do about it?” Certainly, he inherited some of that altruism from his mother. As an activist and UNICEF ambassador herself, she credits Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, for awakening her sense of humanity and philanthropy. “I stopped thinking of only my own lifeboat,” she told Vanity Fair in 2008.

In 2013, she told the magazine something that really rocked the boat. While talking about her first husband, Frank Sinatra, who she claimed was the great love of her life, she was asked if Ronan might actually be the crooner’s son. “Possibly,” she replied. While no DNA tests were performed, one only has to look at young blue eyes to see an uncanny resemblance to the Chairman of the Board. Adding credence to the possibility, when asked about Ronan, Nancy Sinatra Jr. said, “He is a big part of us, and we are blessed to have him in our lives.” The million-dollar question is, can he sing?

 

Mr. Farrow has plenty to sing about these days. He and his fiancé, Jon Lovett, host of Pod Save America, recently purchased a home in the Hollywood Hills and just last week, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape. Although the jury acquitted Weinstein on the most serious charges, he was found guilty of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and rape in the third degree.

When asked if Weinstein’s conviction on two lesser charges diminished the victory in any way for the accusers, Farrow responded, “It seems to not be in the minds of the accusers that I’ve been talking to. I think there is some consternation: how could this jury come back with the finding that does not include a predatory charge, one that speaks to the pattern? On the other hand, the overwhelming reality for a lot of these sources is someone they say was their assailant, and who seemed impervious, is now facing a lot of time in jail, up to 29 years.”

Commenting on the verdict, actress Roseanna Arquette said, “I want to thank Ronan for his incredible investigative reporting and for never, ever giving up. I really am happy that I trusted him and thank him so much.”

 

So, if you’re driving on Route 133 in Bridgewater, Connecticut and see a car with a bumper sticker that says, ‘My son is a dragon slayer’, you’ll know you’ve just seen Ronan Farrow’s mom.