Woody Allen wants to rebut sex abuse claims with NY Times op-ed

Hollywood legend Woody Allen may strike back using the same medium his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has hit him with: the pages of the New York Times.

Credit: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

Margaret Sullivan, public editor for the Times wrote in a blog post Wednesday about the possible arrangement:

“They asked and we said, ‘Yes, send it in,’ ” Andrew Rosenthal, The Times’s editorial page editor, told me today by phone.

It’s not certain that The Times will publish the piece. “It comes down to the editing process,” he said, something that all Op-Ed pieces are subject to.

Publishing such a piece is unusual for The Times’s opinion pages.

“Normally, we don’t publish a direct response” as a full Op-Ed article, Mr. Rosenthal said, but as a smaller and less prominent letter to the editor. “In this case, it was so personal, we thought that we should.”

Last week, Farrow, now 28, wrote a blog post for the Times with graphic details about sexual abuse she allegedly endured as a child by Allen.

For his part, Allen has denied the allegations, calling them "untrue and disgraceful."

Allen's response column may appear "within the next few days," according to Sullivan's post.