Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin respond to Woody Allen sex abuse allegations

Actors were singled out in Dylan Farrow’s open letter claiming adoptive father Allen abused her

Actors Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett have responded to being singled out in an open letter, written by Dylan Farrow, containing allegations of sex abuse against Woody Allen (Getty Images)

Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin moved to distance themselves today from the allegations that director Woody Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter when she was seven years old.

Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter in the New York Times on Saturday claiming that in 1992 Allen took her up to the “dim, closet-like attic” of their home in Connecticut, told her to lie on her stomach and play with her brother’s train set, and then sexually assaulted her.

Woody Allen Responds To Sexual Abuse Allegations

Ms Farrow said: “I was thinking, if I don’t speak out, I’ll regret it on my death bed. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls.”

She goes on to ask: “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?”

The Australian actress Cate Blanchett, appearing at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival to pick up the latest award for her performance in Allen’s Blue Jasmine, told reporters: “It's obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some sort of resolution and peace.”

Baldwin, who has starred in a number of Allen films including Blue Jasmine, responded to being singled out in Ms Farrow’s letter by taking to Twitter.

He hit out at users asking him for comment on the allegations against Allen, saying: “You are mistaken if you think there is a place for me, or any outsider, in this family’s issue.”

Baldwin later deleted a tirade of posts, and simply retweeted another user who said people had been “baiting” him to comment.

Earlier, Allen himself said the claims were “untrue and disgraceful”. They come in the wake of his success at the Golden Globes, where he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award.