Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow was on hand at the Tribeca Festival on Wednesday to present not one but two new docuseries he’s produced and appears in for HBO, both of which weave together elements of crime and history to tell two very different stories as the star investigative reporter unearths secrets of celebrities and high society.
Farrow, who grew up as the son of Hollywood royalty in the complicated, broken home of his mother, actress Mia Farrow, and father, filmmaker Woody Allen, has developed a brilliant career as an investigative journalist, brushing off a stalled broadcast pathway to find success publishing landmark work for The New Yorker that frequently exposes the misdeeds of the wealthy and powerful and shines light on their means of retaining power. His investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual assault helped propel the #MeToo movement into the mainstream, and his reports on Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to MIT and accusations that called into question OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s integrity further cemented his reputation.
In 2018, Farrow signed a deal with HBO to produce and develop documentaries, which has led to Endangered, about threats against journalists, and Surveilled, about espionage against the Catalan independence movement. The two new limited series he brought to Tribeca this week — with producing partners Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder (RuPaul’s Drag Race) — take a detour from the heavy topics with which he’s become associated to look at the possible crimes of a socialite in the Arizona suburbs and a private investigator who once tailed Farrow himself.
Not a Very Good Murderer follows a thread that emerged in Farrow’s reporting on President Joe Biden while the former vice president was running for office. With his campaign for the presidency in full swing, a onetime beauty queen dropped a bombshell tweet accusing the career politician of sexual assault. Speaking with Celia “Cece” Doane does not compel the star reporter to follow that particular narrative thread, but his fascination with her leads to the uncovering of wild details of her life story, which features jewelry heists, kidnapping, arson and multiple murder attempts — including one on the husband to whom she is still married.
Doane is a slippery character but in no uncertain terms, an absolute hoot. Dry and deadpan, her side-eyes at Farrow come in full force throughout the pilot episode, and her answers to his interview questions are fully loaded and supercharged. She also gives as good as she gets, confronting the fellow child of extreme privilege on his own past — setting up what else these two might have in store across a genre-bending docuseries that looks to be a cross between HBO hit The Jinx and Q: Into the Storm.
“It was a very long and complicated process that we were all involved in, of making sure we were being caring towards her and respectful towards her — but also doing tough reporting about cases where she was accused of difficult, painful things,” Farrow told the crowd at Tribeca.
“As I was asking her to confront things that, in some cases, she had buried and created a very elaborate architecture to avoid confronting in her life, she also started prompting me to self-reflect. So there’s this arc to the series where there’s a kind of philosophical debate,” he added. “At a time when there are all of these headwinds directed against efforts to expose our truths in this country, we were having a microcosmic conversation where she was saying, ‘I don’t want to look at our truths.’ And I was saying, ‘Well, as someone who’s had to confront my own messed-up past and a lot of really heavy truths in it, here’s the case for that — for ourselves and for America.’”
The Palladino Files, the second series to premiere at Tribeca on Wednesday, has Farrow and company investigating legendary private eye Jack Palladino who was once assigned to pursue the journalist as he was investigating a story. Palladino’s murder prompted Farrow to delve into his celebrity-laden case files, uncovering secrets that may lead to the truth about who killed the PI and why.
Farrow said on stage at Spring Studios that both series are about truth in America, trust in America, the American media and what money, privilege and — in the case of The Palladino Files — private investigation will buy you in the criminal justice system.
“In terms of his historic cases, he was the Clinton campaign’s hatchet person going after Gennifer Flowers. He was R. Kelly’s guy,” Farrow said. “Here are all of these cases that we don’t really get to. He did so much. There’s definitely the material there for a second season.”
Both Not a Very Good Murderer and The Palladino Files are set to premiere on HBO, but the network has not announced airdates for either series.
Original Article on Hollywood Reporter