News of Woody Allen's controversial new film, which IndieWire reports features a sexual relationship between a 15-year-old and an adult, doesn't look good in a post-Harvey Weinstein world. Following the allegations of sexual misconduct against the producer, people are now shining a light on other problematic figures in Hollywood, and Judd Apatow has publicly called out Woody Allen on Twitter for being a part of the poison in the industry.
"It is sad that he is obsessed with all these young actresses and none of them run when offered the job," Apatow wrote, sharing a link to the IndieWire report.
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It doesn't help that Allen's response to the Weinstein controversy was less than satisfactory. While he said it was "tragic" for the women involved, he also said he didn't want the accusations to "lead to a witch-hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself."
This is particularly egregious as Allen stands accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
"Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime," she wrote in an open letter for The New York Times in 2014. "That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood."
In response, Allen said via his lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, that he denied the claims, but that he felt "overwhelming sadness" for Farrow.
"She was a pawn in a huge fight between him and Mia Farrow years ago, and the idea that she was molested was implanted in her by her mother," Abramowitz said on the Today show. "That memory is never going to go away. So, the fact that she says this now, that it happened 20 years ago, is totally understandable."
But after not just Weinstein's alleged actions have been revealed, but also those of other powerful men in the industry, it's time for these accusations to be re-examined with the severity they truly warrant.