You may know about this story already but it’s news to me. Woody Allen and Mia Farrow’s biological son Ronan Farrow, 23, is a former child prodigy and now works as a Special Adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Ronan is so gifted that he graduated Bard college at 16 and then went on to Yale law school, which he graduated at 21. Apparently Ronan threw himself into his studies and later his career, and hates his dad and doesn’t even talk to him. Who can blame him when his father married his own sister? Soon Yi is 41 now but she was just 21 when she allegedly first started seeing Woody in 1991, who was 55 at the time. As background which you probably already know, Soon-Yi was adopted by Farrow and her then-husband, Andre Previn, in 1978 when she was about eight years old. Farrow and Previn split up and she got together with Allen in 1980, when Soon-Yi was about 10. Once Soon-Yi was legal (or maybe before), Woody was all over that. It’s interesting to hear how his son feels about it. Again, these quotes are older but they’re new to me.

‘He’s my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression,’ Ronan has said.

‘I cannot see him. I cannot have a relationship with my father and be morally consistent… I lived with all these adopted children, so they are my family. To say Soon-Yi was not my sister is an insult to all adopted children,’ – Via The Daily Mail. Quotes are from several years ago.

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“Ronan grew to hate his father,” continued the source. “He was disgusted by Woody and his relationship with Soon Yi.”

“Ronan couldn’t care less if Woody’s proud of him or not,” added the source. “The only person who matters to him is his mother.”

[From The Daily Mail and The National Enquirer, print edition, December 19, 2011]

I guess this story of Ronan’s estrangement from his dad came out again after the news late last month that Ronan had been awarded a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford for a year. There also was a PBS special on Woody called American Masters that aired recently, and Woody “never mentions Ronan in the entire three-and-a-half hour series,” according to The Daily Mail. For her part Mia Farrow has acknowledged no longer speaking with her daughter Soon-Yi, who is still married to Woody Allen. Mia said of Soon-Yi in 2006 “It’s been a long time now. And I really don’t think of her as my daughter any more. I can’t. She isn’t. She’s estranged – and strange.”

Woody and Mia had son Ronan and they also adopted two children together. Mia had three biological children and three adopted children from her relationship with Andre Previn prior to Woody. After Mia and Woody split up, she went on to adopt six more children to bring her total number of kids up to 15. That must have been a pretty crazy household.

Woody and Soon-Yi Previn are shown in Rome on July 21, 2011. Woody is holding the hand of his adopted daughter, Manzie. They are also shown at Cannes on May 11, 2011. Ronan and Mia Farrow are both shown in 2009. Credit: WENN and Fame

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.