Ronan Farrow Is Totally OK With Reporters Asking About Woody Allen
Page Six is reporting that Ronan Farrow, the freshly installed MSNBC host, has warned reporters who plan to attend an awards ceremony at Manhattan’s Princeton Club, where Farrow will be honored with the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Journalism, not to inquire about his father, Woody Allen, or any other “personal” issues:
Reporters have been issued a tip sheet that includes stern “conditions” not to ask anything about Allen. “The theme of the evening is global education and service,” it says. “All press are required to stay strictly on message. Any press who ask guests or Mr. Farrow about off-message topics will be immediately escorted out of the event.”
However, a rep for Farrow denied Page Six’s report in a statement to Gawker: “Ronan and his team did not request any restrictions on reporters’ questions.”
A source at MSNBC added that the “tip sheet” was created and distributed, without Farrow’s knowledge, by a 3rd-party public relations firm hired by the ceremony’s organizers. The channel, which helped organize the event, had only specified that Farrow would not have that much time to answer reporters’ questions—not which kinds of questions, if any, were off-limits.
Indeed, Farrow has never really shied away from discussing the allegations against his father:
Missed the Woody Allen tribute - did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 13, 2014
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