Famed movie director Woody Allen had an excellent Hollywood career in the ’80s. However, this greatness was stunted when the mysteries of sexual allegations shrouded his career.
Woody Allen was one of Hollywood’s respected filmmakers, and this stopped being a thing in the ’90s after news of sexual assault allegations surfaced. The Hollywood star’s fame dwindled with the controversy.
The controversy included Allen, his former partner Mia Farrow and her daughter Dylan Farrow. Dylan and Mia opened a case against the director, accusing him of molesting Dylan. Here is a timeline of all that ensued.
Inside the Allegations Against Allen
Dylan was seven years old in 1992 when she told her mother that Allen had molested her at Mia’s Connecticut home. A few days later, Allen filed a lawsuit against his partner.
This he did to gain custody of the three children they had together. He also held a press conference within the same year, sharing that Dylan’s allegation was a damaging manipulation of children.”
“Allen v. Farrow,” a four-part HBO documentary series, debuted on Sunday. It provides a fresh examination of Dylan Farrow’s decades-old sexual abuse allegations against Woody Allen.
Here’s a recap of the first episode.https://t.co/wUInRvLcXb
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 22, 2021
The “Midnight in Paris’ star accused Mia of influencing Dylan and setting her against him. He made reference to his relationship with Mia’s then 21-year-old daughter Soon-Yi Previn, noting that Mia was jealous of that.
Within the period Dylan first told her mother about being assaulted by Allen, he had started a romantic relationship with Previn. The love interest is Mia’s daughter from a previous marriage.
Previn supported Allen and berated her mom for the allegations. In her own statement, Previn stated that although she knew her relationship with her stepdad was ‘offbeat,” he never committed sexual misconduct around her.
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More On the Allegations
All the while, the child custody battle between Allen and Mia was still on. Allen later shared that he had a team of medical doctors examine Dylan, and the result cleared his name.
However, Mia’s attorney tagged the result inaccurate. Both sides also agreed not to publicize the report for the sake of the child’s privacy. By June 1993, Mia gained full custody of her three children, Dylan, Moses, and Satchel Farrow.
When Dylan first told her mother, Mia did not report to the police. She instead took the little girl to the pediatrician. The medical practitioner examined Dylan and reported to authorities.
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Allen Denies Again
With the advent of the #MeToo movement, Allen’s molestation case has resurfaced. In a four-part HBO docu-series dedicated to the allegations, the now 85-year-old movie maker has denied them again.
He gave an interview in 2021, where he called the allegations preposterous and shared that he was innocent. The docu-series also contained clips of where other Farrow family members attested to the claims.
The Effect on Allen’s Career
One publisher who worked on the release of Allen’s autobiography canceled it. Allen also got shunned by Amazon as his 2018 movie “A Rainy Day in New York” was not released.
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Among stars, there was a fraction of those who stood by him and others who regretted working with him. Stars like Timothy Chamalet, Rebecca Hall stepped back from working with Allen, while others like Alec Baldwin and Blake Lively showed support.
Through it all, Allen maintains that he is “perfectly innocent” and that the accusations were mere fabrications. He and Previn got married in 1997 and are still together.