SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Why doesn’t Amazon, Hollywood seem to bat an eye at allegations against Woody Allen?
Jan 15, 2015, 12:19 PM | Updated: Jan 16, 2015, 8:44 am
Amazon Studios is delivering Woody Allen as creator of his first-ever TV series. The veteran filmmaker will write and direct all of the episodes of the half-hour series. A full season has been ordered for Amazon's Prime Instant Video, the company announced this week.(AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
Seattle’s own Amazon.com has signed a deal with Woody Allen to create a television series. While Allen has had a remarkable career and is an Oscar-winning filmmaker, some question why companies like Amazon are eager to affiliate with him, considering accusations made against him in the past.
Last year, Dylan Farrow renewed molestation allegations against Woody Allen, claiming the movie director sexually assaulted her when she was 7 after he and actress Mia Farrow adopted her.
KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson wonders why Hollywood is reacting to 20-year-old rape allegations against comedian Bill Cosby, but Woody Allen’s career still seems to be thriving.
“How does Woody Allen stay immune to all of that? His [adopted daughter] says that he molested her. We know about as much about the truth of those allegations as we do the Bill Cosby allegations, yet Woody Allen is still embraced by everyone in Hollywood and Bill Cosby is a pariah.”
Amazon Studios vice president Roy Price called Allen “a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all time,” keeping him “at the creative forefront of American cinema” during a career that spans 50 years.
“He married his stepdaughter for crying out loud and he gets a free pass,” Monson says of Allen’s decision to marry Soon-Yi, the adopted daughter of his ex, Mia Farrow. The two acrimoniously separated after Farrow discovered Allen was having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who was 19 or 21 at the time. (Her date of birth is uncertain.)
Monson also recalls how creepy Woody Allen was in the 1979 hit “Manhattan.”
“I’m 42 and she’s 17. I’m older than her father. Do you believe that?” his character said about a 17-year-old played by Mariel Hemingway in the film.
Allen will write and direct all of the episodes of the half-hour series for Amazon. A full season has been ordered for Amazon’s Prime Instant Video, the company announced this week. The series is expected to premiere in 2016.
Amazon started Amazon Studios in 2010 to develop full-length films and TV shows.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
