MIA: The Life of Mia Farrow

Authors of many celebrity biographies, Epstein and Morella don't offer much more about actress Farrow than readers of fanzines and gossip columns already know. What little drama exists in this breathlessly written tome derives from the simple facts of Farrow's life: the daughter of screenwriter-director-author John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan, she was the young star of TV's Peyton Place , then of the film Rosemary's Baby ; she was married to Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, and has now been Woody Allen's main star and lover for some 10 years. (The couple has several children.) More than a third of the bio is about Farrow's well-documented short marriage to Sinatra; otherwise the book is skimpy and apparently written without the cooperation of Farrow or anyone close to her. Resorting to psychobabble and making questionable assertions (``When they were alone, life for Mia and Frank was totally fulfilling and without artifice or pretension''), the authors also get basic facts wrong (``When World War II began in October 1939 . . . ''). Photos not seen by PW . (July)