· Cate Blanchett responds to Woody Allen abuse claims

Oscar nominated director Woody Allen has been forced to deny allegations he molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was a child.

Farrow, the adopted daughter of Allen and actor Mia Farrow, published an open letter on The New York Times website, claiming she was sexually assaulted by her then adoptive father when she was seven years old.

Woody Allen says allegations of child molestation against him by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow are “untrue and disgraceful”.

His publicist Leslee Dart said in an email that Allen has read Farrow’s open-letter and Allen would soon respond to the allegations.

“What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin?

Farrow claimed that in 1992 at the family’s Connecticut home, Allen led her to a “dim, closet-like attic” and “then he sexually assaulted me”. She didn’t specify Allen’s actions, but described other abusive behaviour.

“What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house,” Farrow said in her letter.

“He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.

“He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies.”

Connecticut prosecutors investigated the allegations in 1993 during the public and very painful split between Allen and his then partner Mia Farrow, but found insufficient evidence to charge Allen.

The 78-year-old director has long maintained his innocence.

Speaking outside the Santa Barbara Film Festival following the publication of the letter, Australian actor Cate Blanchett, the star of Allen’s latest film Blue Jasmine, said she hoped Allen’s family could find resolution.

“It’s obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some resolution and peace,” she said in a statement.

Dylan Farrow criticised Blanchett and several other actors who have recently appeared in Allen’s films in her letter saying: “What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?”

Alec Baldwin responded to several fan tweets saying that he was not getting involved.

“You are mistaken if you think there is a place for me, or any outsider, in this family’s issue,” the actor said.

The open letter follows an explosive Vanity Fair interview with Mia Farrow in August 2013 where she claimed her biological son with Allen, Ronan, was actually fathered by singer Frank Sinatra, her former husband.

With AAP