Accused of terminating the 'Annie Hall' director's contract due to his sexual abuse allegations, executives insist it was actually his comments about the producer and the #MeToo movement.
- Jul 26, 2019
AceShowbiz - Amazon Studios bosses have responded to Woody Allen's breach of contract dispute, insisting he was fired over comments he made about Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement.
The director filed a $65 million (£52.4 million) lawsuit to contest the termination of a multi-project deal he made with studio bosses after they stopped working with him, accusing them of backing out of the 2017 agreement over allegations of sexual abuse made against him by his estranged daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Allen has been denying Farrow's claims for years and insists he shouldn't have lost the deal over something he has already been cleared of, but Amazon Studios representatives now insist that was not the reason he was fired.
According to new legal documents obtained by The Blast on Thursday (July 25), the executives insist comments Woody made about the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal and #MeToo movement led to his termination.
"As Amazon has repeatedly made clear, it terminated its relationship with Plaintiffs based on Mr. Allen's public statements in and after October 2017, in relation to the #MeToo movement, and the resulting refusal of talent to work with him, and not because of the 'old' allegations of sexual misconduct made against him," the documents read. "Amazon's knowledge of that past controversy before entering into the MAA and SPAs is therefore irrelevant, and is uncontested in any event."
Allen's lawyers claim Amazon bosses backed out of the deal last June (18), and they are refusing to distribute his movie "A Rainy Day in New York", which stars Jude Law, Selena Gomez, Elle Fanning, Diego Luna, Liev Schreiber, and Timothee Chalamet.
The controversial statements the new legal filings refer to surround Allen's take on the Weinstein scandal, as several women came forward to accuse the movie mogul of criminal sexual abuse and harassment following the publication of a damning New York Times article in 2017.
"The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved," Allen told BBC News. "Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up."
"You also don't want it to lead to a witchhunt atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either."
The "Annie Hall" director later clarified his remarks in a statement to Variety, noting he felt sad for Weinstein because the former Miramax co-founder is a "sick man".
