Woody Allen, the 88-year-old auteur who has touted his immunity to cancellation, is getting his latest public defense from Bill Maher, who declared in a new interview that any actor who refuses to work with Allen over the longstanding sexual abuse allegations against him are “a bunch of pussies.”
Speaking to Katie Couric on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast, Maher railed against the lack of “consistency” of “MeToo punishments” for men like Louis C.K., who admitted to sexual misconduct with multiple women in 2017. Maher, who said he’s “very much so” still friendly with the comedian, claimed that—despite C.K. winning the Grammy for best comedy album in 2022—he has not been able to mount a worthy comeback in the mainstream Hollywood film industry.
His attentions then turned to Allen, who was accused by Dylan Farrow—Allen’s adopted daughter with ex-partner Mia Farrow—of sexual assault against her when she was a child. The allegation was first made in 1992, when she was seven years old, and then again in an open letter penned by Dylan in 2014. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations; he has never been charged with a crime. “I respect the artist and the man,” Maher said of Allen. “I don’t think he committed that crime. There were two police investigations that exonerated him. I mean, what do you have to do in this country?”
Maher went on to rail against actors who refused to work with the filmmaker or expressed regret about already having done so. As he told Couric, “All these actors who won’t work with him anymore, some of them made movies with him [and have said] ‘I regret doing that’—what a bunch of pussies.”
The late-night host also critiqued the scope of 2021’s HBO documentary series Allen v. Farrow, which details the allegations against Allen with cooperation from numerous members of the Farrow family. “First of all, it’s a very improbable crime that they’re accusing him of. Plainly, the other party had motivation and was vindictive,” said Maher, referring to Mia Farrow. “If you saw the documentary about it, it was all from her point of view. So, first of all, I just flat out believe him. I believe a 57-year-old man didn’t suddenly become a child molester in the middle of a divorce proceeding and a custody battle in a house full of adults in broad daylight.” (Allen and Farrow were never married.)
At the time of the alleged abuse, Allen was undergoing an acrimonious split from Farrow, which began after Mia discovered Allen had become sexually involved with Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s then 21-year-old adopted daughter whom Allen first met when she was 10 years old. When Couric pointed to “some pretty damning” evidence against Allen that was “separate” from Dylan’s and Mia’s accounts, things that “raised some legitimate questions”—citing an alleged past romantic relationship with a high school student and Allen’s desire to see a girlfriend “dress up in little anklets and Mary Janes and babydoll dresses”—Maher continued his defense.
“Oh, you think he’s the only guy who likes that?” Maher asked with a laugh. “You think he’s the first guy who wanted his girlfriend to dress in anklets and babydoll [dresses]?” He went on to assert that Allen’s sexual preferences don’t “make [him] a pervert,” adding, “That’s what we grew up on, we find it sexy.” (Allen has denied any abuse or relationships with underage women.)
Last fall, Allen’s latest film, Coup de Chance, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to both protests and a a five-minute standing ovation. Earlier this month, the octogenarian director said in an interview with Air Mail that he’d considered retiring because “all the romance of filmmaking is gone.”
Savannah Walsh
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