Earlier this week, Woody Allen baffled the press by claiming that he should be the "poster boy" for good behavior in the film industry. "I’m a big advocate of the #MeToo movement," he said. "I feel when they find people who harass innocent women and men, it’s a good thing that they’re exposing them."
This was obviously seen as a little strange coming from the 82-year-old writer and director, as he has long been recognised as an alleged abuser.
"I should be the poster boy for the #MeToo movement," Allen said. "Because I have worked in movies for 50 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses and not a single one — big ones, famous ones, ones starting out — have ever ever suggested any kind of impropriety at all. I’ve always had a wonderful record with them."
But one person who has suggested impropriety - his own daughter, Dylan Farrow - does have something to say about the matter.
"All Woody Allen’s recent antics demonstrate his desperation to salvage a now faltering career," she wrote in a Twitter statement. "His true feelings on Weinstein and MeToo were made evident in his initial reaction and defense of Weinstein. Everything he says now is nothing more than calculated PR strategy in an attempt to undermine the credible allegations against him. We’re all wiser to that now and know the lengths powerful men will go to in order to demean and silence their victims."
Indeed, when the Weinstein story originally broke, Allen implied that he felt sorry for the disgraced producer.
"The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved," he said. "Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that [his] life is so messed up.
"There's no winners in that, it's just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."
Farrow's complaints against Allen originated all the way back in 1992 when she was just seven years old. At the time, she alleged that her father had touched her "private part" while they were alone together - and was only prompted to speak about the matter after a babysitter who was present at the house allegedly witnessed the director behaving inappropriately with the young girl.
Since then, however, people have accused Dylan's mother - Mia Farrow - of coaching the girl, and Moses Farrow, Dylan's brother, has taken his father's side in the decades-long debate.
Allen continues to deny the allegations, and said at the beginning of this week:
"This is something that has been thoroughly looked at 25 years ago by all the authorities and everybody came to the conclusion that it was untrue. And that was the end and I’ve gone on with my life. For it to come back now, it’s a terrible thing to accuse a person of. I’m a man with a family and my own children. So, of course, it’s upsetting."
This is not the first time Farrow has spoken out publicly against her father.
"Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse," she said in an open letter in 2014. "That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up."
Allen continues to maintain his innocence.
