UPDATE: Woody Allen’s publisher has decided to cancel the planned release of his highly controversial memoir ‘Apropos of Nothing’ after staff walked out in protest on Thursday. The announcement Friday by Hachette Book Group followed days of criticism focused on allegations that Allen sexually abused his daughter Dylan Farrow. Allen’s book was scheduled to come out in April. The rights of the memoir will now return to him, according to press reports.
Woody Allen’s memoir will finally be published in the United States next month, but whether it will go into detail about abuse allegations by step-daughter Dylan Farrow remains to be seen.
The near 30-year-old allegations gained renewed currency when The New York Times published a compelling personal letter penned by Dylan in 2014. It was her first public statement about the alleged abuse.
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The book, titled “Apropos of Nothing,” will be printed by Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group and formerly known as Warner Books. Multiple publishers rejected it last year.
But Grand Central is counting on widespread interest in Allen’s total career.
“The book is a comprehensive account of his life, both personal and professional, and describes his work in films, theatre, nightclubs, and print,” the imprint said in a statement.
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Then, it added this cryptic line: “Allen also writes of his relationships with family, friends and the loves of his life.”
Allen’s love life has been star-crossed at best.
Two years ago, Babi Christina Engelhardt came forward and revealed she had a “romance” with Allen that began in 1976, when she was just 16 and underage in New York City.
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At the time, Allen was 41, and had just finished a run of films that included “Sleeper,” “Love and Death” and “The Front.”
Engelhardt said she decided to go public with her story, in part, as a response to the #MeToo movement, although she said the affair was consensual. Ultimately, she said she felt Allen used and humiliated her.
Allen was married to actress and television writer Louise Lasser, from 1966 to 1970 and Harlene Rosen, from 1956 to 1962.
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He was also involved in long-term relationships with Diane Keaton, from 1970 to 1971 and Mia Farrow, from 1980 to 1992. Engelhardt’s affair ended before Allen’s relationship with Farrow.
That latter relationship crumbled when Farrow discovered that Allen was having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, whom Farrow had adopted with previous husband Andre Previn when Soon-Yi was five.
Soon-Yi married Allen, who is 35 years older, in 1997.
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Allen’s seeming romantic penchant for dramatically younger women helped lend credence to Dylan Farrow’s claims that Allen sexually abused her in an attic at their family home in 1992 when she was just seven years old.
Though two separate investigations were launched in the 1990s, Allen was never charged with any offence. He has long maintained his innocence and claims Dylan was brainwashed by Mia Farrow during a bitter separation.
Dylan’s brother Ronan Farrow wrote a 2017 expose that detailed serious sexual allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein spanning most of his decades long career. His reporting helped spawn the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements that encouraged women to come forward about their own experiences.
In her own letter, Dylan accused Hollywood of turning a “blind eye,” to Allen’s alleged transgressions.
Allen received some moral support from adopted son Moses Farrow, who took his side in a lengthy essay of his own.
“My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and sexually molesting my sister. And I hated him for her for years. I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi,” he wrote.
Nonetheless, the allegations divided Hollywood and finally cause repercussions for Allen.
In 2018, Amazon Studios decided to drop a five-picture film deal with the storied director and refused to release his picture “A Rainy Day in New York,” starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez and Jude Law.
The film was released overseas last summer, but has yet to find a U.S. distributor.
His current project, “Rifkin’s Festival,” starring Christoph Waltz and Gina Gershon, also has no U.S. distributor.
The romantic-comedy is about a couple who fall in love while in Spain for the San Sebastián Film Festival.
Allen sued in February a year ago, alleging Amazon hads no right to terminate a deal for the production and distribution of films.
Allen’s memoir will also be published in Canada, Italy, France, Germany and Spain, among other countries.
Check out the video below, and interview Allen gave last September to French television. The discussion is in English.