So CBS and Lee Cowan, who is quite smarmy on camera, have omitted a lot from their Woody Allen interview on Paramount Plus.
The interview was conducted for “CBS Sunday Morning” last July. There’s no way that Woody could have defended himself against the recently aired HBO special because no one knew about it last July.
In the interview, which you could pay $5.99 for or get a free trial to the streaming service before cancelling it (which I advise), Cowan opens by telling the audience Allen is “reviled” and conveys fairly clearly that he’s disgusted by even being there. Cowan has always been the B team on “CBS Sunday Morning” to Anthony Mason. He’s really at a low point here.
This is what we get: that Woody feels Dylan believes the accusations against him even though they are not true. “She was a nice kid,” he says. She was 7 when he last saw her, more than 25 years ago.
He once again denies all the accusations, and repeats the obvious: why would a 57 year old man with no history of any such activity suddenly choose that moment to molest a little girl — at Mia’s house, with lots of witnesses downstairs, and the spotlight of custody trial looming. It makes no sense.
Cowan concedes that Woody went on to marry Soon Yi, it’s been 23 years, and they adopted two little girls who are now in college. As Woody says, “They don’t give two baby girls to someone they think is a pedophile.” They don’t, he’s right, and he’s not a child molester. “And yet,” Woody says, “the smear has remained.”
There is no mention of Mia Farrow’s brother, John, who just served 7 years of a 25 year sentence for child molestation in Maryland. There is also no mention of the suicide of two of Mia Farrow’s adopted children, and a third one who died. The facts are irrelevant to Cowan.
So you don’t have to subscribe to Paramount Plus, don’t waste your money. As I wrote in a previous item, Woody’s team expected this interview to air last summer after it was taped. They say they were lied to for months, and no idea that the interview would be held this long only to be put on a streaming service. Meanwhile, on the free CBS Sunday Morning, Woodyh is kicked around once again, out of context, and without a defense.
And I hate to say it, but when Woody passes away — he’s 85 now– CBS will exploit this by repurposing Cowan’s clips over and over. Disgusting.
