Amazon Tells Woody Allen They Fired Him for #MeToo Comments, Not for Alleged Sexual Assault Against Daughter
Amazon is adamant they fired Woody Allen for his recent comments about the #MeToo movement NOT for the allegations he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Amazon and Allen are battling it out in the director's $68 million lawsuit. As part of his lawsuit, Allen has demanded Amazon hand over documents from 2014 until now, “concerning Amazon’s knowledge of Mr. Allen’s “controversial” history."
Amazon argues in response that they have made it clear they did not fire him based on the old sexual abuse allegations, but because of his comments about #MeToo and his response to his daughter Dylan Farrow’s accusations against him.
They add, “As Amazon has repeatedly made clear, it terminated its relationship with Plaintiffs based on Mr. Allen’s public statements in and after October 2017, in relation to the #MeToo movement, and the resulting refusal of talent to work with him, and not because of the “old” allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. Amazon’s knowledge of that past controversy before entering into the MAA and SPAs is therefore irrelevant, and is uncontested in any event.”
Amazon is asking a judge to rule they don’t have to search for such documents since it has no bearing on the case.
A judge has yet to rule.
Earlier this year, Allen and his production company sued Amazon for $68 million dollars. The two entered into a multi-picture deal in 2014. Amazon then attempted to terminate the deal following the #MeToo movement, and after his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow’s allegations that Allen molested her had resurfaced.
In his suit, Allen said, “Amazon has tried to excuse its action by referencing a 25-year old, baseless allegation against Mr. Allen, but that allegation was already well known to Amazon (and the public) before Amazon entered into four separate deals with Mr. Allen—and, in any event it does not provide a basis for Amazon to terminate the contract. There simply was no legitimate ground for Amazon to renege on its promises.”
Amazon fired back saying they terminated the deal for Allen’s public statements on #MeToo.
Amazon wrote, "Despite immediate consensus on the importance of acknowledging and addressing this issue, Allen made a series of public comments suggesting that he failed to grasp the gravity of the issues or the implications for his own career.”
Allen was quoted as saying: 'You don’t want it 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.”
They even took issue with Allen’s response to his daughter’s 2018 interview recalling the alleged abuse. He released a statement saying, “Even though the Farrow family is cynically using the opportunity afforded by the Time’s Up movement to repeat this discredited allegation, that doesn’t make it any more true today than it was in the past … I never molested my daughter … as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago.”
The case is ongoing.
