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A post in which Maynard observes that what goes around comes around if only you hang around.

Since Mia Farrow has been in the news lately (and Tammy has commented on this story on Tammy Radio), I want to discuss some relevant history. This is more or less mud, so I’m not entirely comfortable dredging it up. But I’m not doing this just to smear her; it’s actually a sort of interesting circle.

Once upon a time, a singer/songwriter named Dory Previn was married to conductor/composer André Previn. Dory was not the most mentally stable of people, and she had her issues. (In her autobiography, she describes an incident where an airplane flight is interrupted because “Somebody in my seat was screaming.” Some of her madness emerged in her music, which I’ve found quite compelling; for example, On My Way to Where. There’s nothing quite like a musical nervous breakdown to stir my blood.) Anyway, Mia Farrow was a friend of the couple, and then, in a few months in 1970, Dory was suddenly (and much to her surprise) an ex-wife and Mia Farrow was the new Mrs. Previn.

Boys and girls, let me give you a useful piece of advice, for which you should thank me: If you’re going to do somebody dirt, choose a victim who is not a writer. An offended artist is going to portray you in his or her work, and it won’t be pretty. Dory wrote the savage song, “Beware of Young Girls”, about you-know-who. The lyrics, in part:

Beware of young girls, who come to the door,
wistful and pale, of twenty and four
Delivering daisies, with delicate hands …
Beware of young girls, too often they crave
to cry at a wedding, or dance on a grave …

She was my friend
my friend, my friend;
She was invited to my house
And though she knew my love was true
and no ordinary thing
She admired my wedding ring …
She admired my wedding ring.

She was my friend,
my friend, my friend
She sent us little silver gifts
Oh what a rare and happy pair
she inevitably said
As she glanced at my unmade bed …
She admired my unmade bed.

The song continues, closing on this note:

We were friends,
were friends, were friends
And she just took him from my life
So young and vain, she brought me pain
but I’m wise enough to say
She will leave him one thoughtless day
She’ll leave him and go away …

Dory was prescient. Mia and André divorced in 1979. While together, they had six children, several of whom were adopted. (And Mia probably deserves a tip of the hat for taking in refugee children, and encouraging others to do the same.) After her divorce, Mia Farrow linked up with Woody Allen, and stayed with him until 1992. And now the wheel of fate turned full circle. Woody dumped Mia in favor of her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, and the two were married in 1997. There were some allegations that Woody’s relationship to Soon-Yi was inappropriate, having been initiated during her youth and from his position of de facto parental authority. There were some investigations, but ultimately no legal repercussions.

It’s a troubling story. Maybe Soon-Yi learned a thing or two from her mother. Maybe Mia should have taken a lesson from Dory’s song.