THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407300079
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 204 lines
MIA FARROW, a fragile child-woman, is obviously not looking forward to being interviewed.
Nonetheless, she smiles faintly and extends a quivering, white hand. Her flyaway blonde hair rings the waif-like face that appears much younger than her age, which is almost-50. Perhaps it is her youthful attire that makes her look as if she were still the flower child - she's in a worn cotton T-shirt, tennis shoes and Levis. Or perhaps it is her luminous complexion, or her thin, childlike voice.
Pull it all together and you have a woman whom many men would feel honor-bound to protect. It is the persona that has attracted such varied men as Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn and Woody Allen.
At the moment, she's seemingly vulnerable - an unmarried woman with 12 children, three cats, four birds, a hamster and a guinea pig.
On the other hand, Woody Allen's lawyers and friends say she is a steel magnolia who is using the press to portray herself as caring parent - and to degrade him.
Farrow's publicist won't allow questions about her personal life. ``If there are any questions about Woody, I will have to confiscate your tape recorder and ask you to leave,'' the publicist has announced.
It has been two years since Farrow learned that her live-in lover of more than a decade, Woody Allen, was having an affair with her 19-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Farrow found photographs of her naked daughter that were taken by Woody Allen. She subsequently accused him of molesting their adopted daughter, Dylan, now 8. A year ago, the case was supposedly settled when the New York State Supreme Court denied Allen custody of his natural son, Satchel, 6; and his adopted children, Moses, 16, and Dylan (whose name has now been changed to Eliza).
An entire generation mourned the breakup. A generation went through Woody and Mia's soul-searching movies - many of which, like ``Hannah and Her Sisters,'' now seem to mirror the couple's own struggles.
In the case of Mia, the pertinent question remains: Is there life after Woody - particularly a professional life? Many critics doubt it.
Farrow seems intent upon beating the odds. ``Widow's Peak,'' her first film in 13 years not directed by Allen, is currently at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk. Another film, ``Miami,'' written and directed by David Frankel, has not yet been released.
``I haven't been on the open market for a few years,'' Farrow said. ``A year ago, I wouldn't have thought about going to Ireland to make a film. It would have been unthinkable. Now I must think about it. The expenses are quite high.''
I first met Farrow 29 years ago on the set of ``Peyton Place,'' the television serial in which she played Alison MacKenzie. She was 20 and already famous. While waiting for Farrow, I interviewed a stunning brunette actress named Barbara Parkins, who played the show's town tramp, and who was competing with Farrow for space in the nation's magazines.
When Farrow finally arrived on the set, with an entourage of publicists, I was informed that the interview was canceled: I had committed the sin of talking to Parkins. ``Barbara and Mia aren't speaking,'' one of them told me. ``If you do an interview with Barbara, you don't do one with Mia. Mia simply won't talk to people who interview Barbara.''
On the way out, I spotted a stretch limousine and, thinking it was a bit showy for a mere TV show, asked about it. ``Oh, that's Sinatra's car,'' a publicist said. ``He sends it to pick up Mia every day.''
At that time, no hint of the Sinatra-Farrow romance had been made public. The marriage took place shortly afterward. He was 50 and she was 20. (Just about, when you think about it, the same age difference between her daughter, Soon-Yi and Allen today.)
Almost three decades later, I finally got the Mia Farrow interview, but only after several delays. Farrow had canceled the interview two weeks earlier.
``I had just gotten back from Ireland and was removing a suitcase from above,'' Farrow explained. ``I climbed up a ladder and all the suitcases fell on me. I had seven stitches taken in my back. I was bedridden for six days and had to wear a special corset for support.''
She laughed as she added, ``I guess I could sue myself, but I have enough legal problems as it is.''
``Widow's Peak,'' set in Ireland in the 1920s, was written by playwright Hugh Leonard 10 years ago. Farrow stars as Miss O'Hare, an impoverished middle-aged spinster who is tolerated by the rich widows (led by Joan Plowright) who rule Widow's Peak, a village populated almost entirely by women. The town goes into a dither when Natasha Richardson, a young, glamorous widow, arrives. The characters played by Farrow and Richardson immediately take a disliking to each other. A cat fight develops.
``Ireland seemed a long way from the courts,'' Farrow said. ``It was like therapy. I took the five youngest children with me.''
It is not as difficult as one would imagine to be the mother of 12 and still make movies. ``Oh, I turn my camper, my dressing room, into a nursery,'' she said. ``Actually, I only have six children at home now. The others are older. The oldest is in law school. I would like more. I like parenting. I like being responsible for someone.''
The ``Widow's Peak'' set was a healing scene for the three leading ladies. Natasha Richardson had left her husband in order to live with actor Liam Neeson (``Schindler's List''). Her father (Tony Richardson, the Oscar-winning director of ``Tom Jones'') had recently died of AIDS. Joan Plowright was fending off press questions about a controversial new biography of her late husband, Lord Laurence Olivier. The book contended that Olivier had had an affair with comedian Danny Kaye.
Things got testier when Woody Allen arrived in Ireland for his court-authorized visit with Satchel. Director John Irving remembers that ``we all joined ranks around Mia. He began talking to the press about the case and knocking her. We felt very protective.
``Mia never brought her personal problems to the set. She was very professional. I believe that she thought she was making a new start in Ireland. She has many relations there.''
Farrow's great-grandfather was Lord Mayor of Cork. Her mother was born in Roscommon, in northwest Ireland, and her aunts still live in Dublin. ``In Ireland, it rains all the time,'' she said, ``but it doesn't slow you down at all. You do everything anyway.''
Irving said he wasn't worried about his film being compared to Mia's appearances in Woody films. ``The script is very different. That comparison doesn't bother me. I think Woody saw her as some kind of icon. I see her as being more aggressive and assertive.''
He adds, though, that ``I certainly didn't sign her because of any of her personal publicity. I don't think her personal troubles will sell any tickets. What people really want is a good story, and that's what we have in `Widow's Peak.' ''
He is right on one count. ``Husbands and Wives,'' the final movie she made with Allen and one that reflected their breakup, was released in the midst of the press hoopla. It was a box office flop.
Mia Farrow's children come from varied backgrounds. Most of them are adopted, so keeping score isn't easy.
Her new baby girl, 3-month-old Keili-Shea Farrow, as well as Isaiah Justus Farrow, age 2, are adopted. Satchel Farrow, her child by Allen, has just had his name changed to Sheamus. (``The children at school were kidding him,'' she said. ``A satchel is a thing that is carried. Sheamus is the Irish name for James. It is much better.'').
Then there is Eliza (formerly Dylan) who is the subject of the molestation charges, and Tam Farrow, an adopted, blind Vietnamese girl, age 13. Moses Farrow, an adopted Korean boy, was born with cerebral palsy.
Daisy Previn, 19, and Lark Previn, 21, were both adopted from Vietnam. Farrow has three biological sons with Andre Previn: 24-year-old twins, Matthew, a law student at Georgetown University Law School, and Sascha, who works in electronics in Colorado; and Fletcher Previn, 20, a college student in Germany. Soon-Yi Previn, 19, was adopted from Korea.
Asked how she manages all this, she laughs. ``My mother tells people she doesn't know how many children I have. She loses count. I have just a baby-sitter and a housekeeper who work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. At night and on weekends, I have no help. But it's all right.''
Her father was director John Farrow, who directed ``The Big Clock'' and received an Oscar for writing the script for ``Around the World in 80 Days.''
Farrow was the victim of polio at age 9 and frequently suffered childhood diseases. When her father died, there was no money and she went to work on stage, making her debut off-Broadway in a 1963 production of ``The Importance of Being Earnest.''
``Everyone warned me about being an actress, but I needed money,'' she said. She doesn't want any of her children to go into acting. ``Ninety-eight percent of actors are unemployed,'' she said. ``I wouldn't want that for my children.''
``Rosemary's Baby'' made her a star in 1968. She played a young bride who is tricked into mothering the son of Satan. Of Roman Polanski, the film's director, she said, ``He is different from any director I've had. He's an actor himself, so he's so outgoing. There was a great deal of direction.''
She married Previn, then a Hollywood composer, in 1970, after she had given birth to his twins. Her marriage to Sinatra lasted only two years, although they remain good friends. Rumors persist that Sinatra's regular cronies hated Mia and pushed endlessly for the marriage not to work.
Currently, Farrow is 200 pages into packaging all this living into an autobiography. ``I'm halfway through,'' she said. ``It's just impressions.'' Although it is certain not to be a Woody Allen tribute, she doesn't want to talk about the contents.
To accompany the network TV announcement that a miniseries will be made about ``the men in Mia Farrow's life,'' Woody publicly announced that ``that would be no miniseries. It would be a maxi-series.''
She has now moved from her Central Park apartment (just across the park from the apartment where Woody Allen lives) to a home in the Connecticut countryside.
Asked why she so often has played seemingly neurotic characters, she said, ``I choose the best of what I'm offered. I don't agree that most of the women I've played have been neurotic. They are just searching. It's good, now, to be available for whatever comes along. I'm in the market again.''
The voice is that of a breathless girl but the resolve is clearly that of a strong, surviving woman. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
In ``Widow's Peak,'' Farrow portrays a middle-aged spinster.
FINE LINE FEATURES
Mia Farrow stars in ``Widow's Peak,'' filmed in Ireland and now
playing at the Naro in Norfolk. It is her first movie in 13 years
not directed by Woody Allen.
ORION PICTURES
Farrow with her mother, Maureen O'Sullivan, and three of her
children during the filming of Woody Allen's ``Hannah and Her
Sisters'' in 1986...
TRI-STAR PICTURES
...and with Judy Davis and Allen on location for 1992's comedy-drama
``Husbands and Wives.''
Graphic
THE FILMS OF MIA FARROW
[For complete listing, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES by CNB