Is Woody Allen “The Poster Boy” for the #MeToo Movement??

In the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, beleaguered actor, director and producer Woody Allen has stepped to the fore to talk about the #MeToo movement.

By: Henrick Gottmeier

Allen knows a bit about it. He came under heavy fire two years ago when adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow resurrected her claim – Allen denies it — that he had molested her when she was a child of seven.

Actress Scarlett Johansson came out last week in defense of Allen. She told the Hollywood Reporter, “I believe him, and I would work with him anytime. I have been very direct with him, and he’s very direct with me. He maintains his innocence, and I believe him,” she said.

“I’ve worked with hundreds of actresses [and] not one of them has ever complained about me, not a single complaint. I’ve worked with, employed women in the top capacity, in every capacity, for years and we’ve always paid them exactly the equal of men,” Allen said during an interview with France24, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve done everything that the #MeToo movement would love to achieve.”

Allen also said in the interview, “I’ve never worked in Hollywood. I’ve always worked in New York and it doesn’t matter to me for a second. If tomorrow nobody would finance my films and nobody would finance my theater plays or nobody would publish my books, I’d still get up and write because that’s what I do. So I will always work. What happens to it commercially is another matter.

“I haven’t thought of retiring,” Allen added. “I don’t have to make movies, if people didn’t want to finance my movies I would be very happy working in the theater, or writing books, but I like to get up and write. I don’t like to get up and do nothing.”

Tweeted Farrow following Johansson’s comments, “Because if we’ve learned anything from the past two years it’s that you definitely should believe male predators who “maintain their innocence” without question. Scarlett has a long way to go in understanding the issue she claims to champion.”

Andrea Occhipinti, founder and CEO of Lucky Red, the first independent distributor in Italy and the company responsible for Rainy Day’s Italian release, commented on the allegations against Allen in an interview on vulture.com. “Of course we were aware. It was a big concern, but from the best of our knowledge nothing came out of the legal charges. Allen was not prosecuted. So yes, it was a concern, but since there were no charges against him, we decided to distribute the movie as planned.”