Woody Allen's nude photos of Mia Farrow's college-age daughter were introduced against him in the celebrities' bitter child-custody case.
In testimony Monday, Allen defended the half-dozen snapshots of 22-year-old Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, calling them erotic, not pornographic. He said the photos were Previn's idea, though he arranged the scene.Allen said he told her: "Lay back on the sofa and give me your most erotic posses. Let yourself go."
The half-dozen photos that led to the falling-out between the filmmaker and his leading lady were introduced by Farrow's lawyer, Eleanor Alter.
The 57-year-old Allen said he struck up an affair with Farrow's adopted daughter after his relationship with Farrow had become "joyless, sexless." He said he considered Previn an adult, unrelated to Farrow's other children.
"I screwed up," he said under questioning from Farrow's lawyer. "I caused this thing to happen, OK, but don't seek vengeance on me through the kids."
Allen wants custody of their 5-year-old son, Satchel, and their two adopted children, Dylan, 7, and Moses, 14. He says Farrow is an unfit mother.
Allen said he had wanted to break the news gently to Farrow about his affair with Previn, but her discovery of the snapshots made that impossible.
"Mia just went so explosive at that time that there was no way of containing it," Allen told Justice Elliott Wilk, who is hearing the case without a jury.
"The children were used by Mia in the most shameful and degrading way as pawns right from the start," he said. "They knew, and their noses were rubbed in it."
Connecticut authorities are investigating allegations Allen molested Dylan at Farrow's country home. A Connecticut hospital panel last week said the allegations were unfounded, but Farrow's lawyer called that conclusion flawed.
"I never molested Dylan," Allen said, with Farrow sitting across the courtroom. "I don't think Ms. Farrow ever thought I did."
Earlier in the day, Allen's lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, introduced as evidence a Valentine Farrow gave to Allen. Allen said he was "terrified" to see meat skewers thrust through the hearts of Farrow and the children in a photo.