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  • Bill Maher Calls Actors Who Won’t Work With Woody Allen “a Bunch of P-ssies”

    Bill Maher Calls Actors Who Won’t Work With Woody Allen “a Bunch of P-ssies”

    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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  • Roseanne Barr On Being Canceled: “I’m The Only Person Who’s Lost Everything”

    Roseanne Barr On Being Canceled: “I’m The Only Person Who’s Lost Everything”

    Nearly five years after Roseanne Barr was fired from the revival of her hit sitcom Roseanne after posting a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a senior aide to President Barack Obama, the comedian is dipping her toe back into the spotlight. 

    Fox Nation will premiere both Barr’s new stand-up special, Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!, and a documentary about her, Who Is Roseanne Barr?, on Monday. Ahead of that day, the controversial figure spoke to The Los Angeles Times about life post-cancellation and her feelings regarding The Conners, a spinoff centered on the remaining cast members of her series that is currently airing its fifth season. 

    Barr told the Times that her ouster from Hollywood “was a witch-burning,” and that ABC “denied me the right to apologize” for her tweet. “Oh my God, they just hated me so badly. I had never known that they hated me like that,” the 70-year-old said. “They hate me because I have talent, because I have an opinion. Even though Roseanne became their No. 1 show, they’d rather not have a No. 1 show.” She claimed that during a call with top network brass, “I told them I thought [Jarrett] was white. I said I would go on my show and explain it. They wouldn’t let me. They decided I was a liar in my apology.”

    Although the Roseanne revival was an unqualified ratings hit, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey terminated the series with this statement: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” Sara Gilbert, a star and executive producer of the series, also condemned Barr’s tweets: “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least,” she wrote at the time. 

    “I can’t believe what they did, with all the pain that I went through to bring the show back. And it didn’t faze them to murder my character, either,” Barr said of her castmates and collaborators. “They s— on my contribution to television and the show itself. But I forgive everybody. I started thinking that God took me out of there to save me. And once I started thinking that way, I was, like, a lot better off.” 

    Robert Trachtenberg/Getty Images

    When the Times asked if Barr watches The Conners, she replied: “No. I just can’t bear it, so I don’t. When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide. They killed my character, and my character.”

    Barr then compared her plight to those of Dave Chappelle, who has come under fire for transphobic jokes he’s told Netflix specials like The Closer, and Louis C.K., who admitted to sexual misconduct with multiple women in 2017. Nobody else in Hollywood has been shunted aside like her, Barr claimed, “although they always throw in Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. Well, Louis C.K. did lose everything, but he committed an actual [offense]. And Dave Chappelle was protected by Netflix.” 

    Savannah Walsh

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  • The Replacements: Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, and 7 Other Actors Who Were Replaced Onscreen

    The Replacements: Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, and 7 Other Actors Who Were Replaced Onscreen

    Shortly after LaBeouf’s departure, two women accused the actor of physical, mental, and emotional abuse, and he told The New York Times, “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years.… I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.” But ahead of the film’s 2022 release, LaBeouf denied being fired, sharing emails with Variety in which he told Wilde, “I quit your film”; he alleged that he left Don’t Worry Darling due to inadequate rehearsal time. Later, while appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Wilde said, “We had to replace Shia. He is a fantastic actor, but it wasn’t going to work. When he gave the ultimatum—him or Florence—I chose Florence. That was him feeling he was stepping away and me feeling like we were moving on without him,” adding, “It’s a question of semantics.”

    Blake Jenner

    Fresh off his best-actor Oscar nomination for Aftersun, Paul Mescal is seizing the role of Broadway composer Franklin Shepard in Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along, taking the part over from Jenner, who previously worked with the filmmaker on Everybody Wants Some!! While no official reason has been cited for Jenner’s departure, his ex-wife, Melissa Benoist, revealed in 2019 that she was a survivor of domestic abuse, though she did not name the perpetrator. Jenner, whom Benoist married after they played love interests on Glee, later confirmed the allegations and apologized, but he also claimed he had been abused as well prior to their divorce in 2017.

    Using the multiyear filming approach that he took with 2014’s Boyhood, Linklater will shoot Merrily over a 20-year period, with Mescal, Ben Platt, and Beanie Feldstein starring as the main trio. Last April, Platt said that Linklater had shot “the first sequence” of the film, but it’s unclear if or how any of Jenner’s footage was reconfigured. 

    Louis C.K. 

    The disgraced comedian admitted to sexual misconduct with multiple women in 2017, releasing a statement in which he admitted, “These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true.” The professional fallout for C.K. was swift, as a deal between FX Productions and his production company, Pig Newton, was canceled, and wide-release plans for his film I Love You, Daddy were scrapped. 

    Amidst the rubble were two of the star’s voice-over roles. Reruns of Disney Channel’s Gravity Falls, on which C.K. voiced a character named “the Horrifying Sweaty One-Armed Monstrosity,” were redubbed by series creator Alex Hirsch. And he didn’t reprise his role as Jack Russell terrier Max in 2019’s Secret Life of Pets 2, a part that instead went to Patton Oswalt. “I did have some hesitations, but it was more about the story rather than the voice, so I just said, ‘All right,’” Oswalt told The Hollywood Reporter about taking on the job. Since the fallout, C.K. has won a Grammy, embarked on a nationwide comedy tour, and directed another movie. 

    Johnny Depp

    Before his defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp resigned from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the Harry Potter prequel series. The exit followed his loss in a 2020 libel case against the publisher of British tabloid The Sun. He was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen, although Depp reportedly still received his full $16 million salary for the project. “I’m a big fan of Johnny,” Mikkelsen said last August. “I think he’s an amazing actor; I think he did a fantastic job. Having said that, I could not copy it. There was no way I could just copy it, because it’s so much him. It would be creative suicide. So we had to come up with something else, something that was mine, and build a bridge between him and me.”

    Chris D’Elia

    After the stand-up was accused of sexually harassing and grooming underage girls in 2020, which D’Elia denies, he was erased from Zack Snyder’s Netflix zombie film, Army of the Dead. When asked about the decision to reshoot D’Elia’s scenes using Tig Notaro, Snyder told Vanity Fair: “I think it was a fairly easy one.” Producer Deborah Snyder added, “It was an expensive one, that’s for sure,” with Zack estimating that production poured “a few million” into scrubbing D’Elia’s frames and staging reshoots. 

    Ed Westwick

    In fall 2017, the Gossip Girl alum was accused of sexual assault by three separate women. The actor denied all allegations in a since-deleted tweet, writing, “I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.” Ordeal by Innocence, the BBC adaptation of an Agatha Christie classic, in which Westwick played the black sheep son of a wealthy family, had its Christmastime release date delayed. His role was reshot with British actor Christian Cooke, who had starred alongside Westwick in 2013’s Romeo & Juliet adaptation, and the miniseries premiered in April 2018. 

    Frank Langella

    When the Oscar-nominated actor was fired from Mike Flanagan’s Netflix adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher last April, the then 84-year-old blamed his ouster on “cancel culture” in a column for Deadline. In the piece, Langella said that his costar accused him of touching her leg, a move that was not scripted by the project’s intimacy coordinator. The actor, who wrote that the project was meant to be his “last hurrah,” also said that he had been accused of  telling “an off-color joke,” sometimes calling his costar “baby” or “honey,” and hugging his coworker or touching her on the shoulder. Langella was subsequently replaced by actor Bruce Greenwood, who stars alongside Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, and Mark Hamill. 

    Savannah Walsh

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