Ronan Allen, the 21-year-old biological son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen has been appointed to a high-level State Department position. According to Politico and other sources, Ronan was appointed as a liason between the Richard Holbrook (the special envoy to Pakistan) and humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Pakistan, such as Save the Children, Church World Service, the International Rescue Committee. When people realized that someone so young (with such famous parentage) was given such a high position, you can bet that some feathers were ruffled.

One critic (from an NGO) was anonymously quoted as saying, “You have seasoned, experienced NGO officials dealing with some very sensitive foreign policy and humanitarian aid issues, whose main contact in Holbrooke’s office is a 21 year old whose experience has been travelling to southern Sudan with his mom.” Translation: Holbrooke should have hired me! Another unnamed source sniffed, “It was a surprise but we don’t see this really as a big deal. He’s not the only point of contact for us.” Translation: We don’t want to talk to the kid, so we’ll go over his head. Holbrooke’s office is holding strong, though. The State Department even officially defended Ronan, saying “He’s very qualified for the job, and has already helped explain the current situation (regarding) Pakistani procurements to key NGOs.”

To his credit, Ronan does seem rather qualified. He’s something of a wunderkind. He was accepted to Yale Law School before he was 16 years old, but deferred to work as a Special Assistant to Richard Holbrooke. He ended up entering Yale Law in 2006, and graduated earlier this year. Ronan has also published essays and articles on Darfur and human rights issues for the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Forbes Magazine. His previous jobs include a gig with the United Nations Children’s Fund, a UNICEF spokesperson for youth and he also helped his mother in her work for Darfur. He’s also kind of hot - don’t judge him from these older pictures from 2004. He does take after his mother more than his father, but now that he’s all grown up, his features aren’t so delicate, and he’s a babe! (see current pictures here, here and here).

Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has appointed Mia Farrow’s 21 year old son as his team’s liaison to non-governmental organizations working in Pakistan, humanitarian group officials tell POLITICO.

Representatives from Save the Children, Church World Service, the International Rescue Committee, and Care met with Holbrooke this week to talk about what his team is trying to do with humanitarian assistance in Pakistan, an NGO official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.

And there’s this young guy with Holbrooke who nobody recognizes, the humanitarian group official said. And Holbrooke tells the group that this is Ronan Farrow, who will be his special liaison to NGOs working in Pakistan. And that among Farrow’s experience, he has traveled to southern Sudan with his mom.

(Actress Mia Farrow has been an advocate for international action to stop genocide in Darfur.)

“You have seasoned, experienced NGO officials dealing with some very sensitive foreign policy and humanitarian aid issues, whose main contact in Holbrooke’s office is a [21] year old whose experience has been traveling to southern Sudan with his mom,” the humanitarian official said, describing the NGO representatives in the meeting as taken aback by the news.

Ronan Farrow’s Wikipedia page says that he was born in 1987, with the birth name of Satchell Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (and the subject of their famous custody dispute). But while he’s only 21 (he turns 22 in December), Farrow’s biography describes him as something of a prodigy, who has worked in some unspecified capacity for Holbrooke since he was a teenager. It says he was admitted to Yale Law School when he was 16 years old, but deferred admission until 2006 to “work as a Special Assistant to Richard Holbrooke, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations” and for additional work as a UNICEF spokesperson for youth. He apparently recently graduated from Yale Law School.

A State Department official confirmed the appointment, and said Farrow was qualified for it, and brings solid NGO experience with Save Darfur, and UNICEF. “He’s very qualified for the job, and has already helped explain the current situation re: Pakistani procurements to key NGOs, including a meeting he organized today with InterAction and its affiliated NGOs.”

“Kid’s a friggin’ genius,” another official said. “And a true activist for Darfur … Went to college at age 11 and then to law school at 16.”

Another associate of Farrow’s writes, on condition of anonymity: “I know and have worked with Ronan Farrow. … I can reveal that his actual title at State is as Special Advisor on Humanitarian and NGO Affairs … He has the policy chops. He wrote columns on human rights issues for the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and International Herald Tribune for years. Working for UNICEF – not just with his mother in Sudan, but in Eritrea, Angola, and Nigeria – is just a fraction of what got him hired. He was a human rights law guy at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ran a research team for the CDC in Nairobi, and has testified as an expert witness before Congress repeatedly. … He’s young but he has a depth of experience that many people twice his age lack. ….”

[From Politico]

I’m fascinated by child geniuses. The Doogie Howsers of the world are so cool. I think that’s what Ronan is - I mean, college at the age of 11, Yale Law School at 16? So. Awesome. He’ll probably be president in 20 years. Either that, or he’ll crash and burn like those Enron guys (they were allegedly “the smartest guys in the room”). But Ronan’s hot! No one that hot can be bad, right? Forget Sparkles Pattinson, I’d go cougar for Ronan. He looks like such a baby in the 2004 pics below, but he turned out so hot.

Header image was uploaded on 10/23/09 and is credit Jek339 via Wikipedia.

As we reported a few weeks ago, Mia Farrow went on a planned three-week hunger strike to raise awareness about the current situation in Darfur. Unfortunately, Mia was left too weak to complete the full three-week hunger strike, and her doctor order her to eat after 12 days. Billionaire “rebel” and Virgin airline honcho Richard Branson stepped up to finish Mia’s awareness-raising stunt. Branson vowed to do a three-day hunger strike, starting this past Friday. So it should be over by now, and there’s no word on whether Branson finished it. I suspect he did.

Mia’s aim was always to bring more light on the current situation in Darfur, in the power base of Khartoum, and the refugee camps on Sudan and Chad’s borders. Since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, all hell has broken loose in Saudan, and not in a good way. President al-Bashir has pretty much declared war on the UN agencies in the region, as well as the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) trying to pick up UN slack:

Mia Farrow, who is ailing after almost two weeks on a hunger strike, announced on Friday that Richard Branson would take over her protest in solidarity with people in Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region.

A spokesman for the actress said her health had deteriorated in the past few days and her doctor requested that she end the liquids-only fast that she began 12 days ago to protest Khartoum’s expulsion of more than a dozen aid agencies from Darfur.

Farrow asked Branson to take over the fast, her statement said, adding that the British entrepreneur had accepted and would begin a three-day hunger strike on Friday.

“We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace,” Branson was quoted as saying in the statement.

Farrow’s spokesman said last month that her doctor expected the slightly built actress could not fast for more than three weeks.

Farrow, who was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN children’s agency Unicef in 2000, has been campaigning for years to raise funds and awareness for children in conflict zones like Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Chad and Nigeria.

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, in March, charging him with masterminding mass killings and deportations in Darfur in western Sudan.

Since then, Sudan has expelled 13 foreign and three domestic humanitarian aid agencies, accusing them of collaborating with The Hague-based ICC.

UN officials say that as many as 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.7 million driven from their homes in Darfur in almost six years of ethnic and political violence.

Khartoum, however, says 10,000 people have died. Some 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur.

[From The Telegraph]

It’s sad that Mia couldn’t complete her hunger strike, people really were paying attention. It’s cool that Branson stepped up to do a three-day strike, but it would be even better if more celebrities got involved and vowed to complete the original 21-day strike. Yes, it would be a stunt, but more people would pay attention if people like George Clooney and Matt Damon got involved. What if all of those celebrities who don the “Save Darfur Now” shirts actually did their own publicly-announced three-day hunger strikes? Very little would actually change in Darfur, but the coverage of Darfur would change in the mainstream Western media. Hey, it’s got to start somewhere.

Photo Credit: PRPhotos

Mia Farrow is still talking about the human rights travesty that is Darfur, even though very few people are listening. Instead of doing a round of talk shows, Mia decided to go on a 21-day hunger strike, to show her solidarity with the Darfurians and displaced Sudanese refugees. Her doctor is worried that a 21-day hunger strike could kill the 64-year-old actress and activist, but she says no one can talk her out of it.

On March 4, the International Criminal Court finally issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Considering no one country, and no coalition of countries is willing to actually march into Khartoum to put the handcuffs on Omar al-Beshir, nothing has happened since the warrant was issued. Instead, al-Beshir expelled international aid agencies from Sudan, and has encouraged the splinter militia groups to terrorize any aid workers and agencies operating close to Sudan’s border. Several aid workers have been kidnapped - from Doctors Without Borders and the French relief group Aide Medicale Internationale, amongst others.

Mia Farrow is so determined to embark on a potentially dangerous hunger strike, not even her doctor can talk her out of it.

The 64-year-old actress and humanitarian plans to begin fasting on Monday, and she has set a limit of 21 days - or until her health worsens. Farrow, who will drink water only, says she approached her doctor for advice, asserting, “Please don’t even try to talk me out of this.”

Farrow’s hunger strike is a show of solidarity with the people of Darfur. She was inspired to do it after the Sudanese government expelled international aid agencies from the country last month. Farrow says her doctor will be on call. In preparation, she’s taking vitamins and eating fruits and vegetables, and she’s gained 9 pounds.

“I’m just an actress,” Farrow said Wednesday by phone from her home in rural Connecticut. “I’m not presuming anybody will care whether I starve to death or whether I go on a long hunger strike or what. But it’s a personal matter. I can’t be among those that watch - and I honestly couldn’t think of anything else to do.”

Farrow said her doctor wants to conduct a blood test two weeks after she begins the protest. “I don’t know what will happen - I have no idea,” she said. “I looked it up online just to see kind of what to expect, and the reason I’m gonna try to go for three weeks is because you do permanent, irreversible damage, possibly to your organs. … But it is a punishment to the body for sure.”

Farrow is willing to take the risk. She’s been to the Darfur region 11 times and feels compelled to return repeatedly on the peoples’ behalf to “try to tell a world that seems not to care at all what’s happening to them.”

Last year, Farrow became a vocal opponent of the Beijing Olympics, calling on China to use its close ties to the Sudanese Arab-dominated government to end the conflict in Darfur. As an alternative to the Olympics, Farrow aired a series of webcasts showing the poor living conditions of ethnic African refugees displaced by the fighting.

The war in Darfur began in early 2003 when rebel groups rose up against the government complaining of discrimination and neglect. U.N. officials say up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

“My goal is to one day build a museum for Darfur’s people - in Darfur,” Farrow said. “Where the young people who’ve grown up in the midst of violence and in deplorable conditions in camps will be able to go to that museum and reclaim what’s theirs.”

Farrow, who has collected 40 hours of video footage of traditional ceremonies and other rites that are rarely performed in dark times, expects to return to camps on the Sudan-Chad border sometime this year.

But first, she has to get through her fast.

“I’m going to spend time with each of my children between now and Monday and try to, you know, really alleviate whatever worries they might have or concerns. … I’m still a parent and I don’t want to die.”

[From The Huffington Post]

Will Mia’s hunger strike accomplish anything? Well, we’re talking about it, so at the very least, a few more people are aware that the Darfur problem still exists, and people are still dying. On Sunday, hundreds of protesters came to Washington to promote Genocide Awareness Month, and there are calls for President Obama to step up and get more involved in the crisis. When he came into office, Obama appointed a special envoy to Sudan, but has done little else. My take on the situation is that until we economically and politically extract Chinese interests from Sudan, little will be done.

Here’s Mia Farrow at the Eleventh Hour - A Day for Darfur event in London in 2007. Images thanks to WENN.com .

UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow just returned from a three-week fact-finding mission in Darfur and Chad, just as UN Messenger of Peace George Clooney left the States for a visit to the same area. Farrow has been to Darfur and to the refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border more than a dozen times. This is Clooney’s fifth visit.

The Darfur genocide came out of the decades-long unrest in Sudan and their neighbors, but became the modern tragedy of genocide and war crimes in 2003. Throughout 2005-06, the Darfur genocide gained more publicity through the work of activists like Mia Farrow and George Clooney, though to little avail. Even though an alleged “peace” agreement was reached several times, the rape, killing and burning continued. In 2006, the American papers identified that it wasn’t just the Sudanese refugees who were being targeted - the Janjaweed (pro-government Sudanese mercenaries) had begun a campaign of rape and murder on relief workers. Clooney spoke out about Sudan’s president, Omar al-Beshir, saying that he hoped the International Criminal Court would arrest Beshir and try him for war crimes.

Hollywood activists George Clooney and Mia Farrow are stepping up their campaigns to publicise the plight of refugees in the Sudan with a series of visits to the country’s war torn Darfur region.

Clooney has been at the helm of a campaign to highlight the continued bloody conflict in the country, which is thought to have killed millions of innocent refugees.

Meanwhile, Farrow uses her role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to try and increase aid for Sudanese children affected by the bloodshed.

In a continued bid to help the refugees affected, Farrow has returned from a three-week fact-finding mission, just as Clooney is preparing to make his fifth visit to Darfur and eastern Chad.

Clooney says, “It is the right time to be here to support the people. We are waiting for the indictment of (Sudan President) Omar al-Beshir.”

Beshir is awaiting a decision by the International Criminal Court on whether a warrant for his arrest will be issued. He has been accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

From Contact Music

While Clooney was in Chad, he made a surprise visit to the Irish peacekeeping troops stationed near the refugee camps. The Irish website RTE reports that Clooney “made an unscheduled stop at Camp Ciara in Goz Beida in the southeast of the country late on Tuesday evening. There he met members of 99 Infantry Battalion and posed for photographs.” There is a nice photo on the RTE website.

Mia Farrow is shown at Free The Children’s National Me To We Day in Toronto on 10/17/08. George Clooney is shown at the Venice Film Festival on 8/28/08. Credit: PRPhotos.

Angelina Jolie has topped the Reuters/AlertNet poll of celebrity humanitarians, beating out her partner Brad Pitt, Darfur activist Mia Farrow, U2’s Bono and UN Ambassador of Peace George Clooney. Jolie got about one-third of the votes cast, despite her quieter humanitarian schedule this year- she was pregnant with twins for the first half of the year. Still, Jolie managed to make a UNHCR/USO trip to Iraq and refugee camps on Iraq’s border this spring, where she not only met with refugees displaced by the Iraq war, but she also met with General David Petraeus and with American soldiers stationed in Baghdad. In October she made a trip to Afghanistan, focusing more attention on the permanently displaced Afghan and tribal refugees. Through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, Brad and Angelina donated $2 million to Ethiopia, targeted for a center of learning for children affected by AIDS and tuberculosis. They also donated another $1 million for children affected by the Iraq war.

Hollywood actress, U.N. goodwill ambassador and globe-trotting mother-of-six Angelina Jolie was named top celebrity humanitarian for the second year running in an AlertNet poll. Not many mothers would go haring off to a warzone just months after giving birth to twins, but Jolie squeezed in a trip to Afghanistan in October to raise awareness of the plight of refugees returning home to rebuild their lives.

Jolie scooped almost a third of the votes in the online poll despite the fact she has done relatively little other humanitarian work in a busy year in which she also released two major films. In second place was actress Mia Farrow, who regularly speaks out on Darfur and Congo. U2 rockstar Bono, who campaigns on debt, unfair trade and HIV/AIDS, came third. The least respected celebrity was Madonna, who was roundly condemned over her adoption of a young boy from Malawi which was finalised this year.

Jolie, said to be the world’s top earning actress, has made some 25 trips to meet refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) since 2001 in her capacity as an ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. “She manages to raise the issues on the plight of refugees and IDPs in ways that are very human, simple but poignant,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Marie-Noelle Little-Boyer who has accompanied Jolie on many trips. “I’m not surprised she won. She has a way of reaching people that is something particular to her. I think she is so moved by the situation herself that it really comes from the heart.”

Of the 132 people who took part in the poll, 40 voted for Jolie. Other celebrities attracting praise included actor George Clooney who campaigns on Darfur and was named a U.N. “messenger of peace” this year, and Jolie’s partner actor Brad Pitt who is involved in post-Hurricane Katrina work and runs a Darfur charity with Clooney and actor Don Cheadle. Other celebrities popular with voters included: Actor-director Ben Affleck who made a film on Democratic Republic of Congo to help UNHCR raise $23 million for those displaced by the war Don Cheadle who was commended for his “persistent and consistent lobbying for international attention to conflict in Africa” TV chatshow queen Oprah Winfrey who won praise for “teaching others to make a difference”.

[From Reuters/AlertNet]

Apparently, a lot of the same people who think highly of Jolie, Pitt, Affleck, Farrow and Bono absolutely hate Madonna, and are suspicious of nearly all of her actions and her motivations. More than a third of those polled listed Madonna as “the celebrity humanitarian they least respected”, singling out her adoption of David Banda and the bad message the adoption and the Kabbalah-centered chairty sent to development projects across Africa. And this poll came out before people even heard about the screwy financing of her Malawi projects.

The article goes on to explain that with the horrible global economy, charitable giving and the movement of “celebrity humanitarians” will take a backseat to more immediate, more personal, more local needs. No matter if the economy begins to improve throughout the next year, aid agencies will be less likely or less able to promote their causes and do larger fund-raising drives, and the public as a whole will not be as eager to hear about global suffering when there’s suffering across the street.

Angelina Jolie is shown at the Clinton Global Initiative on 9/26/07. Credit: Janet Mayer/PRPhotos

Sad news: Mia Farrow’s daughter Lark, who had been ill for quite some time due to an undisclosed condition, passed away on Christmas day. She was 35 years old and the mother of two teenaged girls. Lark Previn was Mia’s first adopted daughter with then-husband Andre Previn. Mia adopted her along with her sister, Daisy, from Vietnam in 1973.

Lark Previn, the Vietnamese-born adopted daughter of Farrow and musician Andre Previn, died on Christmas Day, the medical examiner said Monday.

Lark Previn, 35, a mother of two girls, had been ailing for a decade. A cause of death was not released.

Her two daughters, Sara, 13, and Christine, 12, sat in the front row at her wake last night at a Brooklyn funeral home.

Robert Garcia, Previn’s live-in boyfriend, declined comment.

Neighbors in the couple’s Clinton Hill apartment building said she was somewhat reclusive and gave no hint that her mother was a celebrity.

“We never knew. She never let on,” said Lillian Rivera, 42, a neighbor. “She was a mystery.”

The young mom was obviously ailing and had grown skinny and lost most of her hair in recent months.
“It’s very sad,” the neighbor said.

Lark Previn and her sister, Daisy, 34, were the first of Farrow’s multiethnic gaggle of adopted kids.

The two sisters first made headlines in 1991 when they were arrested for shoplifting underwear from a mall in Connecticut, near Farrow’s country home.

Mia Farrow and Andre Previn also adopted the Korean-born Soon-Yi Previn, who wound up marrying Woody Allen - the actress’ one-time companion - after a scandalous affair became public in 1992.

Farrow’s children mostly sided with her against Allen in their epic feud, which included child molestation accusations against the famed director.

From NY Daily News

How sad for Mia and her grandchildren! Imagine losing a loved one on Christmas day. It would make it hard to enjoy that day like everyone else from then on. Not only are you missing the person you lost, but you are marking Christmas as the day you lost them. Condolences to the family.

Mia Farrow is shown on 10/17/08 at “Free The Children’s National Me to We Day” in Toronto. Credit:
Robin Wong / PR Photos

Apparently, Hollywood has run out of original ideas and has taken it upon themselves to remake every classic movie- thereby ruining them for generations of fans. “Psycho,” “The Omen,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” are some examples of recent victims. Also rumored to be on the remake block are “Grease,” which may star Jessica Simpson (gag), and now “Rosemary’s Baby.” The classic camp horror film that launched the careers of Roman Polanski and Mia Farrow is said to be getting the makeover treatment by “Transformers” and “Armageddon” auteur Michael Bay. Why, Hollywood, WHY?

I’m really trying to hold back with the rage while sharing this news. The above image describes it pretty well. Mia Farrow, I imagine, fells similarly. Here we go. Checking the thesaurus for pleasant adjectives.

Michael Bay, genius American auteur responsible for classics ranging from the delicate fairy tale Armageddon to the sublimely moving Pearl Harbor, is spearheading the production of yet another classic horror remake. After adding millions of dollars of terrific production design and Jessica Biel’s ample acting talents to Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, IWatchStuff.com is reporting that Bay’s next task as horror-remake-producer could be Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s suspense classic about a pixieish young woman impregnated with Satan’s spawn. Based on Ira Levin’s chilling, darkly funny novel about cultural paranoia and religious fanaticism, this great American classic has been screaming for a remake produced by the director of Bad Boys, Con Air, Bad Boys 2, and Transformers. Satan will finally receive his wish.

[From Getty Images Movie Blog]

I’m really trying to understand two key things here:
1) Why can’t Hollywood come up with decent new stories to tell on film anymore? Why violate beloved classic movies that people enjoy in their original form?
2) Who the hell thought Michael Bay would be a good choice for this particular remake? Instead of creepy suspense, is the new version of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ going to have explosions, CGI robots and fight scenes?

I’ll be skipping this one and watching my original at home on DVD, thank you very much.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Michael Bay (along with Josh Duhamel) at the Transformers Movie Tokyo Premiere on July 24th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Mia farrow is offering herself in exchange for unwell prisoner and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Humanitarian Coordinator Suleiman Jamous.

“Before his seizure, Mr Jamous played a crucial role in bringing the SLA to the negotiating table and in seeking reconciliation between its divided rival factions,” Farrow said in the letter dated August 5.

“I am therefore offering to take Mr Jamous’s place, to exchange my freedom for his in the knowledge of his importance to the civilians of Darfur and in the conviction that he will apply his energies toward creating the just and lasting peace that the Sudanese people deserve and hope for.”

New Zealand Herald

Suleiman Jamous is in need of a stomach biopsy, but cannot leave the United Nations Hospital in Kordofan, where he has been kept as a virtual prisoner. He would be arrested if he left.

If you check out Mia’s official website, it covers a lot of the history of the situation. It has some very sad photos of children, and the situation is probably not bedtime reading.

In case you’re wondering who Mia Farrow is, she’s kind of like Angelina Jolie. Which I didn’t think of before, but reading her biography on Wikipedia, I think Angelina ripped her off! And why not…? Mia has had a great career as an actress, married several times (to Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn and Woody Allen), and had fifteen children, eleven of which are adopted. In her spare time she’s a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and fights for children’s rights in areas of conflict.

Mia Farrow is shown speaking on 2/1/07 at a fundraiser for the Washington Area Next Generation Campaign at the US Holocaust Museum. Thanks to WENN for these photos.