Ronan Allen, the 21-year-old biological son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen has been appointed to a high-level State Department position. According to Politico and other sources, Ronan was appointed as a liason between the Richard Holbrook (the special envoy to Pakistan) and humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Pakistan, such as Save the Children, Church World Service, the International Rescue Committee. When people realized that someone so young (with such famous parentage) was given such a high position, you can bet that some feathers were ruffled.

One critic (from an NGO) was anonymously quoted as saying, “You have seasoned, experienced NGO officials dealing with some very sensitive foreign policy and humanitarian aid issues, whose main contact in Holbrooke’s office is a 21 year old whose experience has been travelling to southern Sudan with his mom.” Translation: Holbrooke should have hired me! Another unnamed source sniffed, “It was a surprise but we don’t see this really as a big deal. He’s not the only point of contact for us.” Translation: We don’t want to talk to the kid, so we’ll go over his head. Holbrooke’s office is holding strong, though. The State Department even officially defended Ronan, saying “He’s very qualified for the job, and has already helped explain the current situation (regarding) Pakistani procurements to key NGOs.”

To his credit, Ronan does seem rather qualified. He’s something of a wunderkind. He was accepted to Yale Law School before he was 16 years old, but deferred to work as a Special Assistant to Richard Holbrooke. He ended up entering Yale Law in 2006, and graduated earlier this year. Ronan has also published essays and articles on Darfur and human rights issues for the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Forbes Magazine. His previous jobs include a gig with the United Nations Children’s Fund, a UNICEF spokesperson for youth and he also helped his mother in her work for Darfur. He’s also kind of hot – don’t judge him from these older pictures from 2004. He does take after his mother more than his father, but now that he’s all grown up, his features aren’t so delicate, and he’s a babe! (see current pictures here, here and here).

Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has appointed Mia Farrow’s 21 year old son as his team’s liaison to non-governmental organizations working in Pakistan, humanitarian group officials tell POLITICO.

Representatives from Save the Children, Church World Service, the International Rescue Committee, and Care met with Holbrooke this week to talk about what his team is trying to do with humanitarian assistance in Pakistan, an NGO official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.

And there’s this young guy with Holbrooke who nobody recognizes, the humanitarian group official said. And Holbrooke tells the group that this is Ronan Farrow, who will be his special liaison to NGOs working in Pakistan. And that among Farrow’s experience, he has traveled to southern Sudan with his mom.

(Actress Mia Farrow has been an advocate for international action to stop genocide in Darfur.)

“You have seasoned, experienced NGO officials dealing with some very sensitive foreign policy and humanitarian aid issues, whose main contact in Holbrooke’s office is a [21] year old whose experience has been traveling to southern Sudan with his mom,” the humanitarian official said, describing the NGO representatives in the meeting as taken aback by the news.

Ronan Farrow’s Wikipedia page says that he was born in 1987, with the birth name of Satchell Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (and the subject of their famous custody dispute). But while he’s only 21 (he turns 22 in December), Farrow’s biography describes him as something of a prodigy, who has worked in some unspecified capacity for Holbrooke since he was a teenager. It says he was admitted to Yale Law School when he was 16 years old, but deferred admission until 2006 to “work as a Special Assistant to Richard Holbrooke, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations” and for additional work as a UNICEF spokesperson for youth. He apparently recently graduated from Yale Law School.

A State Department official confirmed the appointment, and said Farrow was qualified for it, and brings solid NGO experience with Save Darfur, and UNICEF. “He’s very qualified for the job, and has already helped explain the current situation re: Pakistani procurements to key NGOs, including a meeting he organized today with InterAction and its affiliated NGOs.”

“Kid’s a friggin’ genius,” another official said. “And a true activist for Darfur … Went to college at age 11 and then to law school at 16.”

Another associate of Farrow’s writes, on condition of anonymity: “I know and have worked with Ronan Farrow. … I can reveal that his actual title at State is as Special Advisor on Humanitarian and NGO Affairs … He has the policy chops. He wrote columns on human rights issues for the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and International Herald Tribune for years. Working for UNICEF – not just with his mother in Sudan, but in Eritrea, Angola, and Nigeria – is just a fraction of what got him hired. He was a human rights law guy at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ran a research team for the CDC in Nairobi, and has testified as an expert witness before Congress repeatedly. … He’s young but he has a depth of experience that many people twice his age lack. ….”

[From Politico]

I’m fascinated by child geniuses. The Doogie Howsers of the world are so cool. I think that’s what Ronan is – I mean, college at the age of 11, Yale Law School at 16? So. Awesome. He’ll probably be president in 20 years. Either that, or he’ll crash and burn like those Enron guys (they were allegedly “the smartest guys in the room”). But Ronan’s hot! No one that hot can be bad, right? Forget Sparkles Pattinson, I’d go cougar for Ronan. He looks like such a baby in the 2004 pics below, but he turned out so hot.

Header image was uploaded on 10/23/09 and is credit Jek339 via Wikipedia.