Ronan Farrow
I've been reading a new book called "War on Peace" -- about contemporary American diplomacy's assorted perils. It's by a young writer named Ronan Farrow -- son of Mia Farrow (yay!) and Woody Allen (boo!).
(I regret to say that Woody is the "gorilla in the room" -- he raped two of Ronan's adopted sisters -- and, so far, has got away with it.)
FYI I'm heroically resisting a "Rosemary's Baby" joke...
Minutes ago, I caught a great, hour-long interview with Ronan on NPR's "Fresh Air" program. Not only did I get insights into the book, but also into his amazing life as a child genius -- he started college when he was 11 years old, then went to law school at 16, and went to work at the State Department.
That was also amazing: he worked with an extraordinary diplomat named Richard Holbrook, who had made peace in the Balkans in the 90's and, with Ronan in his team, was trying to do the same thing for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Alas, life ran out for Holbrook in 2011; a massive heart attack ended our best chance for a negotiated peach in Afghanistan.
All this is in the book, along with much about his foreign-affairs stint that fascinated me about Ronan.
But the radio interview took things in other directions -- particularly his having revealed in the New Yorker magazine last fall the dark history of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. That reporting won him a Pulitzer Prize last month. It was an important part of the burgeoning worldwide campaign to stop abuse of women in various industries and walks of life.
Turns out that, after he left State, Ronan started a journalism career, working for NBC News where he began the reporting that -- after NBC sacked him for, in effect, threatening their lucrative relationship with Weinstein -- eventually resulted in the New Yorker stories on sexually abusive bosses. (Given his checkered history with NBC, he loves working for the liberal magazine -- which happens to be my go-to resource on international topics.)
His Weinstein effort took Ronan back into foreign affairs. Seems the mogul put an Israeli private-intel firm called Black Cube onto him -- and onto the women sources he developed to report the story.
He even witnessd the vicious intimidation that was part of Weinstein's modus operandi. (Ronan said he wouldn't answer the NPR interviewer's other questions about the threats directed at him; "there are legal issues pending ...oh, and there could be another book in it.")
Well, gentle readers, I'd love to tell you more. There was so much in the interview about his life with Mia Farrow and his many siblings, on their international charitable activities, and on the bizarre side of Woody.
Hey, look up Ronan on Google, as I'm about to do. And check out his New Yorker pieces! (I'm also going to complain about NBC's rotten treatment of Ronan -- maybe I'll copy this to Rachel Maddow, a fave of mine on MSNBC... or even sic the FCC onto them.)
(I regret to say that Woody is the "gorilla in the room" -- he raped two of Ronan's adopted sisters -- and, so far, has got away with it.)
FYI I'm heroically resisting a "Rosemary's Baby" joke...
Minutes ago, I caught a great, hour-long interview with Ronan on NPR's "Fresh Air" program. Not only did I get insights into the book, but also into his amazing life as a child genius -- he started college when he was 11 years old, then went to law school at 16, and went to work at the State Department.
That was also amazing: he worked with an extraordinary diplomat named Richard Holbrook, who had made peace in the Balkans in the 90's and, with Ronan in his team, was trying to do the same thing for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Alas, life ran out for Holbrook in 2011; a massive heart attack ended our best chance for a negotiated peach in Afghanistan.
All this is in the book, along with much about his foreign-affairs stint that fascinated me about Ronan.
But the radio interview took things in other directions -- particularly his having revealed in the New Yorker magazine last fall the dark history of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. That reporting won him a Pulitzer Prize last month. It was an important part of the burgeoning worldwide campaign to stop abuse of women in various industries and walks of life.
Turns out that, after he left State, Ronan started a journalism career, working for NBC News where he began the reporting that -- after NBC sacked him for, in effect, threatening their lucrative relationship with Weinstein -- eventually resulted in the New Yorker stories on sexually abusive bosses. (Given his checkered history with NBC, he loves working for the liberal magazine -- which happens to be my go-to resource on international topics.)
His Weinstein effort took Ronan back into foreign affairs. Seems the mogul put an Israeli private-intel firm called Black Cube onto him -- and onto the women sources he developed to report the story.
He even witnessd the vicious intimidation that was part of Weinstein's modus operandi. (Ronan said he wouldn't answer the NPR interviewer's other questions about the threats directed at him; "there are legal issues pending ...oh, and there could be another book in it.")
Well, gentle readers, I'd love to tell you more. There was so much in the interview about his life with Mia Farrow and his many siblings, on their international charitable activities, and on the bizarre side of Woody.
Hey, look up Ronan on Google, as I'm about to do. And check out his New Yorker pieces! (I'm also going to complain about NBC's rotten treatment of Ronan -- maybe I'll copy this to Rachel Maddow, a fave of mine on MSNBC... or even sic the FCC onto them.)