I don’t think anybody here is trying to start a campaign to get Ronan to confirm his heritage. It’s just idle speculation. Is it our business? No, no more than any other celebrity gossip is our business. But it’s arguably interesting, not least because of the efforts Mia Farrow has made to disparage Woody Allen and his wife.
Exactly. The people arguing that Ronan’s DNA is not our business are making it seem as if I’m demanding that he reveal his DNA results. I’m not. But as long as he could, and doesn’t wish to, the free-er I feel in speculating what those results might say. He could shut me up, and everyone like me, by publishing his DNA results, but he chooses not to, which encourages me and those like me, to continue speculating.
I will posit that Love and Death is a perfect slapstick comedy. That is all.
You do sound like you think he owes it to his public, though.
I can think of several good reasons why he might not have taken a DNA test. Or why if he did take one, opted not to broadcast it to the world. There’s little point in speculating.
Its excellence has already been acknowledged by several posters, including me, in the “Movies you’ve seen recently” thread.
That’s a long damn thread–any links?
Poke your nose wherever you like, just don’t tell me what you smell there.
As an aside, I just watched Ronan Farrow on Rachel Maddow’s show, and found him to be a very intelligent analyst and journalist (he was talking about Elon Musk’s recent activities in Ukraine). I’m surprised that I can rely on him for honest, straightforward reporting on a wide variety of subjects, and still find him an unreliable nutjob on the subject of his own upbringing, but I can and I do.
If you’re unsatisfied with him not loudly announcing the results of a DNA test, how about this: figure that, as long as he doesn’t do that, plenty of people excitedly gossip about him possibly being Frank Sinatra’s son, and, oh, yeah, now that you mention it, gosh, he’s good-looking in the same way as his lookalike; and, at that, nobody seems to talk about Ronan ever saying anything that could be taken as a negative about his mother — and all while, as far as we know, he, what, only ever tells the truth, right?
And figure, too, that if he ever does announce that, hey, uh, given my doubts about the official story, I decided to get tested, and, well, I learned that I’m not Sinatra’s son, then — what?
Is that, somehow, better publicity for him?
Dunno. I can’t speculate that far ahead. This is already pretty speculative.
So far what we have for sure is:
There are rumors about Ronan’s paternity.
This could be settled by a DNA test.
Ronan declines to take a DNA test (or to reveal publicly what it says).
You can make of those facts what you will, and so can I.
Honestly I have no idea what I would make of his revealing that he is definitely Frank Sinatra’s son, or Woody Allen’s son, or Mickey Mantle’s son. I don’t consider him a credible witness on anything related to his paternity, his family, his mother, his siblings, Woody Allen, or any subject touching on these subjects. But I do find him a diligent, intelligent, and unbiased reporter on the subject he writes journalism about.
As a journalist, do you think he would agree to perform a paternity test on someone against their will? And if not, why should he do so to himself?
Who’s proposing performing a DNA test against anybody’s will?
I’m simply noting that he has the power to settle, perhaps, some of these questions and he chooses not to do so. We may each draw from this choice whatever conclusions we wish to.
You assume that he cares about publicity. Why should he? Perhaps he has simply decided that it’s no one’s business except his. Do you really think that everyone wants everything that’s been publicly discussed about them to be resolved?
I was replying to slicedalone, who assumes the guy is “an unreliable nutjob” on this subject; it occurred to me that if Farrow cares about publicity, the course of action is neither unreliable (as it’s compatible with only ever telling the truth) nor that of a nutjob (as it’s arguably the savviest course of action) — and, since slicedalone framed that in the context of otherwise finding Farrow to be intelligent and honest on a wide variety of subjects, I figured I’d mention that Farrow strikes me as being no less intelligent and no less honest on this one.
Slicedalone wrote that “I can’t think of a response that wouldn’t sound flippant, or defensive, or imbecilic” in the context of saying “He could shut me up, and everyone like me, by publishing his DNA results, but he chooses not to, which encourages me and those like me, to continue speculating.” My reply is that, if I’m right, then Farrow’s overall response could be seen as the exact opposite of flippant and defensive and imbecilic; it’s as compatible with being serious and collected and reasonable as it is with being honest and intelligent and, as it were, not a nutjob — and if a guy says that doing so encourages people to continue speculating, my reply would be: maybe that’s the goal. My reply would be: maybe the response he’s getting is one he desires, and maybe doing something else would get him a less desirable response.
There are, I freely grant, other explanations. But, for me, the first one to come to mind is that, figuring he’s in an If It Ain’t Broke scenario, he reacts accordingly with a Don’t Fix It.
Oh? At the time I wrote that line, over 20 years ago, Downey and Ryder were each having minor legal troubles stemming from drug abuse. They’ve both bounced back since, which is fine.
Yes, that’s why I said it didn’t age very well.
Why on earth would Farrow’s “goal” be to encourage people to continue speculating about his parentage when he has the means to stop the speculation? My conclusion is that the answer he has within his grasp stops the speculation in the precise way that damages his argument and speaks ill of his mother’s morality. That is, yes, a “less desirable goal” than allowing the speculation to go on, and that is my conclusion as to why he prefers the speculation to continue.
My conclusion is that he doesn’t give a shit because it’s not to his benefit to bother with it. What people think about it doesn’t matter to him.
If that were really true, I think he’d take out an ad publishing his DNA results and write I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THIS. R.F. at the bottom.
I think he cares a lot about what people think, so he does everything he can to conceal what can be easily known.
I also suspect he’s had a DNA test performed (and multiple times, just to be absolutely sure) and knows perfectly well what they show. He’s asserted that Woody Allen is his biological father but refuses to reveal the one bit of evidence that would make his worst enemy agree that he’s telling the truth there.
I’m saying the speculation could be the goal.
I’m saying that people can ask each other: Do you think it’s true? Do you think he’s Frank Sinatra’s secret son? I think he looks like that movie star of yesteryear, who made women faint; do you think he looks like that movie star of yesteryear, who made women faint? And have you heard the sly quip he made about the possibility? Oh, I want to speculate! I want to speculate about him! I want to say his name, and say Sinatra’s name, and think about just how much he I think he looks like Ol’ Blue Eyes, while you and I speculate about him!
I’m saying he can, and does, get that dose of extrapolated stardom by putting in no extra effort while just telling truths and doing his job well.