A pervert’s memoir? In this climate?
According to the New York Times, alleged child molester, wedder of stepdaughters, and general sleazebag Woody Allen has been having a difficult time shopping around his proposed new memoir. Executives at four major publishing houses told the Times that Allen’s overtures were met “with indifference or hard passes.” They explained that while a new book from the 83-year-old director might have set off a bidding war before the reemergence of the #MeToo movement, now, with the renewed focus on his daughter Dylan Farrow’s claims that he molested her when she was only 7, “the prospect of publishing his memoir seems to hold little appeal.” (Allen has repeatedly denied these allegations.)
What more does Allen — who has written several books, plays, and dozens of movies — have to say? It is unclear what the memoir would be about, or how much of it has been written. Family friend and writer Daphne Merkin said that she hadn’t seen the manuscript, but that while Allen’s “not one to set the record straight,” (hm) “presumably, the memoir is his side of things.”
Publishers are the latest group to back away from Allen. Actors including Greta Gerwig, Colin Firth, Kate Winslet, and Rebecca Hall have all expressed regret over having worked with him; adaptations of his play “Bullets Over Broadway” were canceled; and his film A Rainy Day in New York, which was slated to be released in 2018, is unlikely to be released in the foreseeable future.