Ronan to Woody Allen Publisher: 'Imagine This Were Your Sister'

Hachette, which is publishing Allen's new memoir, also published Farrow's 'Catch and Kill'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2020 10:00 AM CST
Ronan Farrow Slams Publisher for Woody Allen Memoir
Ronan Farrow is seen Feb. 9, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif.   (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Ronan Farrow and Woody Allen share the same book publisher, but Farrow wasn't happy to recently find out about this bond with his estranged father. Apropos of Nothing, Allen's new memoir due out April 7, is being published by Hachette, also the publisher for Farrow's Catch and Kill, which came out in the fall. Farrow, who stands by his sister Dylan Farrow's accusation that Allen sexually abused her when she was a child, is now expressing his distress at Hachette's newest client. "I was disappointed to learn through press reports that Hachette ... acquired Woody Allen's memoir after other major publishers refused to do so and concealed the decision from me and its own employees while we were working on Catch and Kill—a book about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse," Farrow says in a statement, per the Guardian.

In an email to Michael Pietsch, CEO of Hachette, Farrow added, per the New York Times: "Imagine this were your sister." He also seems to suggest he may cut ties with the publisher over this. "I've ... told Hachette that a publisher that would conduct itself in this way is one I can't work with in good conscience," his statement adds. The Times reports that Farrow's book was published under Hachette's Little, Brown imprint, while Allen's is coming out under the firm's Grand Central division. Pietsch tells the paper it's editorial best practices that "we do not allow anyone's publishing program to interfere with anyone else's." Dylan Farrow, who in her own statement called Hachette's publishing of Allen's book "deeply upsetting" and "an utter betrayal to my brother," says Hachette never made any fact-checking calls to her while vetting Allen's book. (More Ronan Farrow stories.)

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