I’m not sure what to think or feel about last night’s “Janet Maslin blasts Nicholas Kristof” report by Gawker‘s J.K. Trotter, but the basics are these: (1) Maslin, the N.Y. Times book critic, sharply criticized Times columnist Kristof for posting Dylan Farrow‘s letter accusing Woody Allen of child molestation, which Maslin called “an outrageous use of an op-ed column” and “a really questionable use of that space”; (2) Maslin also alleged, based on information “through a friend very close to the story,” that the seed of Dylan’s letter was Maureen Orth‘s November 2013 Vanity Fair story, which aired Mia Farrow‘s suggestion that Ronan Farrow may be Frank Sinatra’s son.
Everyone’s attention being focused on Ronan’s possible Sinatra connection rather than her story of an alleged molestation made Dylan “very unhappy that this suddenly wasn’t about her, and I think that’s that part of why she decided to start calling attention to herself,” Maslin said. “Of all the things that have been parsed by total strangers about what went on in that family, no one has ever dared to consider the sibling rivalry issues in there. It’s just too much to think about.”