Baldwin, Dunham react to Dylan Farrow's sexual assault claims against Woody Allen

Baldwin, Dunham react to Dylan Farrow's sexual assault claims against Woody Allen

Dylan Farrow's explosive open letter detailing sexual assault allegations against her adoptive father, Woody Allen, has sparked a sharp reaction among Twitter users, including Alec Baldwin, who starred in Allen's "Blue Jasmine."

Responding to one follower who asked him if he owed Farrow an apology, Baldwin tweeted: "What the f&@% is wrong w u that u think we all need to b commenting on this family's personal struggle?"

Later, the actor wrote, "You are mistaken if you think there is a place for me, or any outsider, in this family's issue."

"USA is supposed to be THE place where you get a fair trial," he tweeted. "Can a fair trial be conducted w everyone's tired opinions on the internet?" Baldwin later deleted those tweets.

"Girls" star Lena Dunham urged her 1.3 million Twitter followers to read Farrow's letter.

"To share in this way is courageous, powerful and generous," Dunham wrote. "Please read."

In an email to the Associated Press, Allen's publicist, Leslee Dart, said the director read the article "and found it untrue and disgraceful." Dart added that Allen would be responding soon.

Robert D. Weide, who directed "Woody Allen: The Documentary" and defended Allen in a Daily Beast column last month, tweeted that there was "nothing new" in the letter.

Allen, who attended the New York Knicks game against the Miami Heat on Saturday night, did not respond to a photographer's request for comment outside Madison Square Garden.

The 78-year-old Allen who married another one of Mia Farrow's adopted daughters, Soon-Yi Previn, in 1997 has long denied the allegations. In 1994, a prosecutor concluded that while there was probable cause to charge Allen of abusing Dylan, he would not do so "in part because a prosecution could be traumatic for the child."

On Sunday, the same prosecutor said Allen cannot be charged because the statute of limitations on Farrow's accusations ran out at least 15 years ago.

Dylan Farrow broke her nearly 20-year public silence on the sexual abuse allegations against Allen on Saturday, alleging the director sexually assaulted her when she was 7 after he and actress Mia Farrow adopted her.

"What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?" Dylan Farrow wrote in an open letter published by the New York Times. "Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.

"He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies," she continued. "I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains."

In the letter, published in its entirety online, Farrow described how the alleged abuse was "skillfully hidden."

"That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up," she wrote. "I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself."

The claims, which first surfaced in Vanity Fair in 1992, were brought into stark relief again last month when Allen received a lifetime achievement award at the Gold Globes.

"A woman has publicly detailed Woody Allen's molestation of her at age 7," Mia Farrow wrote on Twitter. "GoldenGlobe tribute showed contempt for her & all abuse survivors."

"Missed the Woody Allen tribute," Ronan Farrow, Allen and Mia Farrow's son and MSNBC host, wrote on Twitter. "Did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?"

Last week, Allen was nominated for an Oscar (Best Original Screenplay) for "Blue Jasmine." Dylan Farrow, now 28, married and living in Florida under a different name, wrote that such awards had "silenced her" in the past.

"This time, I refuse to fall apart," Farrow, wrote before lashing out at Hollywood for turning a blind eye on Allen's alleged abuse:

What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me? Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter

Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?