After Amazon scraps Woody Allen’s film deal, publishers reject his memoir

( Photo: IMDb/Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Manhattan (1979)


After allegations against auteur Woody Allen resurfaced at a time when the MeToo movement took the entertainment industry by a storm, his latest personal memoir is finding no keen publishers.

Various executives at multiple publishing houses rejected Allen’s memoir that he tried to sell late last year following his rising unpopularity in the cinema world.

Woody Allen is an American director, writer, actor and comedian whose career graph has spanned over a successful six decades. He was first accused in 1992 by his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, then seven years old, of having sexually assaulted her in her (adoptive) mother’s home, actor Mia Farrow, in Connecticut.

Allen has repeatedly denied the accusation alleging that his affair with Farrow’s adoptive daughter, Soon-Yo Previn caused her to concoct such a charge as an act of vengeance. The New York Department of Social Services had dropped the case after not having found any credible evidence to support the charge. In response, Allen sued Farrow for sole custody of their three children which he lost in June 1993.

Dylan Farrow has repeatedly accused Allen several times as an adult, first in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2013, then in an open letter in the New York Times in 2014, and a Los Angeles Times op-ed in 2017. On all occasions, Allen has defended himself.

Where once, all A-list actors, producers, and publishers did anything to be a part of Woody Allen’s projects, following his case coming to highlight after the MeToo movement, many have refused to work with him at all.

Streaming giant, Amazon recently shelved his latest film A Rainy Day in New York while several actors have vowed never to work with him, many expressing regret for having done so earlier, including Greta Gerwig, Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Timothée Chalamet and Ellen Page.

After the Amazon deal fell out, Allen sued Amazon for breach of contract worth $68 million.

In Europe, however, the director’s image is still not that tarnished. He is currently in collaboration with a Spanish producer and is working on the pre-production of his next project. According to variety.com, it is quite possible that if not any publishing house in the United States, someone in France might take on his manuscript and publish his memoir.

Writer and long-time friend and associate of the 84- year-old Allen, Daphne Merkin told the NY Times, “He’s not one to set the record straight, but presumably, the memoir is his side of things.”

“He’s the kind of person who soldiers on, and someone whose work is his nutrient. Whatever vicissitudes he’s been exposed to, I think he keeps his own counsel about how all this affects and doesn’t affect him.” She added.

With the range of work that Allen has done, being an inspiration to not just filmmakers but also comedians and writers, him being accused has again ignited the debate between separating the art from the artist.

Many fans and admirers have, for long been divided over whether to see his work separated from his life or that association with him or any of his work is a morally incorrect decision.