Mia & Woody: Love and Betrayal - Hardcover

The nanny's-eye view of the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow meltdown. Groteke was a college student when hired in the summer of 1991 to help care for the younger of Farrow's children (there were nine at the time--two more were adopted during her tenure). She worked for the family during the turbulent two years that followed, when Farrow discovered Allen's affair with her daughter Soon-Yi and later accused him of molesting their seven-year-old, Dylan. Groteke is a member of Farrow's camp, but she doesn't mince words: Her depiction of the actress is not flattering. More compelling than her rehashings of the by-now familiar accusations and counteraccusations are her cannily framed snapshots of daily life in the Farrow household. Allen was often icy (he ignored most of the children) but could turn on practically irresistible charm. Farrow was part child-saving saint, part ``doormat.'' After the Soon-Yi discovery, she continued to talk on the phone to Allen as often as ten times a day, made her older children her confidants as she publicly nursed her ``broken heart,'' and contemplated taking in more children. While Groteke says she hasn't ``the foggiest idea'' of whether the molestation occurred, she highlights changes in Dylan's behavior (i.e., heightened physical modesty) that took place at the time. Farrow meanwhile vacillated between obsessive crusading and a state of depression and fear verging on paranoia (she was convinced, for instance, that her apartment was bugged). But as time passed, she regained strength and equanimity. Groteke (assisted by People magazine writer Rosen) delivers the goods: loads of telling details of a family at once genuinely loving and severely troubled. Followers of this most lurid of family feuds will find Groteke a rare source: a spankingly sensible insider whose allegiances don't seem to circumscribe what she reports. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

It's Woody and Mia as seen through the eyes of their children's baby-sitter. No, it's not a segment of A Current Affair; in fact, it's several notches above that. Still, the topic being what it is, readers will want answers to questions like, What is he, nuts? or What is she, nuts? Groteke actually delivers at least some of the goods we've all been waiting for. Here's the background: just before the scandal broke, Groteke, a Connecticut neighbor of Farrow's, came to spend the summer as a nanny. Over the next several years, she became both friend and confidante to Farrow; thus, while her manuscript was not vetted by the actress, it does tell her side of it. Groteke, however, tries to be fair to Allen. She does not presume to say whether he molested his adopted daughter, Dylan, but she does describe what happened on the day when the alleged abuse took place, and she also comments on Allen's fawning devotion to Dylan (to the exclusion of his son, Satchel). The details of those horrific months when Farrow's family was torn apart and relentless reporters dogged their every step make for fascinating reading. Groteke's account of the custody hearing itself proves especially interesting, as does the appendix, which reprints Judge Wilk's entire judgment, devastating in its opinion of Allen. There are surprises here, too. For instance, we learn that even after Farrow found the nude pictures of Soon-yi, she still continued to see Allen, have dinner with him, and speak constantly with him on the phone. When Groteke asks how Farrow could have stayed with him even before the Soon-yi affair, considering he verbally attacked her, wanted nothing to do with her children, and refused to marry her, Farrow talks about Allen's brilliance and how superior she felt him to be. So maybe they were both nuts. Ilene Cooper