It is so interesting that I have come to the defense of Woody Allen, the filmmaker, writer, screenwriter, Woody Allen, for now, I guess, decades.
He was not found guilty of the one charge of one time molesting Mia Farrow's daughter when they were together, he and Mia Farrow.
He's accused of one-time molesting.
Did you ever hear of somebody who molested only once in his life?
I mean, it may exist, but I've never heard of it.
People who molest, molest.
They don't do it once.
And he was exonerated in a court.
He was tried on the issue, and he was exonerated.
And yet, Hollywood boycotted him.
Actors and actresses would not act in his films.
They could not even make a film in the United States.
He made most of his films abroad as a result.
The meanness that characterizes Hollywood is an important thing for you to know.
Most producers, most of the big producers, big actors are bad people.
They're not just fools.
They're mean.
They're bad.
That's it.
I said most.
So most could be 51%.
Could be 80%.
I don't know.
God knows.
Woody Allen, reputation bruised, finds muted reception to 50th film, New York Times.
Coup de chance, a milestone, is being released in the United States after opening in Europe months ago.
This weekend, 13 movie theaters around the country will be showing Coup de Chance, a brisk French-language thriller about a bored wife in Paris who cheats on her wealthy, aloof husband.
With an old high school schoolmate triggering fatal consequences.
A typical viewer could watch the movie without knowing it is the 50th film directed by Woody Allen.
The foreign language, one in which Alan is not fluent.
His original script was translated for filming.
The absence of the kinds of American stars that typically crowd Alan's cast.
The low-key reception with which this milestone has been greeted all suggest the awkwardness surrounding this new release by a filmmaker.
As distinctive as he is polarizing.
He's polarizing.
Polarizing.
The notion...
It's so amazing the inversion of good values.
The notion of innocent until proven guilty doesn't exist on the left.
It doesn't exist.
It's such a mean world, the left world.
And they walk around thinking they're wonderful.
That's why I have such little regard for the conscience.
It's so malleable.
Coup de chance was financed in Europe.
His sister declined to disclose its backers.
Isn't that amazing?
You're not going to mention who backed a Woody Allen film.
Woody Allen, by the way, is a diehard liberal.
So I don't defend him because I agree with him.
I defend him because there's a principle at stake.
Because people called conservatives like me, we defend principles.
And if you defend good principles, you're not on the left.
He's 88 years old?
Wow.
Wow.
88 years old.
Alan, 88, has a more than half-century career as a writer, and so on.
But for many filmgoers, affection for his movies has been overshadowed by allegations against him personally.
They shouldn't say allegations.
An allegation.
In 1992, his daughter, Dylan Farrow, then seven, said Alan had sexually assaulted her months after he had begun a relationship with Soon E. Previn.
Oh, yes, that's the other reason they hate him.
That's right.
He had a relationship, and he ended up marrying, and they're married.
What are they married now?
25 years?
Yeah, 26 years.
Soon-Yi Previn, the teenage daughter of Mia Farrow, his former partner, and Dylan's mother.
She is now his wife of 26 years.
Following an inquiry by child abuse investigators at Yale New Haven Hospital, Allen was never prosecuted.
He denies having assaulted Dylan Farrow.
He and his defenders have suggested Mia Farrow coach their daughter.
That is what I believe.
A lot more to report to you.
Passover is coming up.
Many Christians increasingly over the years have decided to have a Seder with Jews or at their church.
And there is a service, a service of hundreds of years, a thousand years.
The Haggadah is the service, and I have done with the Haggadah.
For Passover, what I did with the Bible and the Rational Bible, the Rational Passover Haggadah.
Even if you never have a service, it's worth reading, because I raise so many important issues in it.