Isn’t it funny that Woody Allen is still roaming free despite multiple sexual assault allegations, and also creating films that’ll be deemed “masterpieces” later on? Well, it’s not. We haven’t forgotten his daughter Dylan Farrow’s admission that Woody inappropriately touched her when she was seven years old. Or, the fact that the director left Mia Farrow to marry his adoptive daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who he met when she was only 10 years old.
If you think that’s creepy and messed up, there’s more: a former model, Babi Christina Engelhardt, alleged she was in a relationship with Woody when she was only 16—one year shy of the age of consent in New York. She told The Hollywood Reporter that they met in 1976 and the director asked for her number without asking her age. She had told she was in high school, though, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing the then-teen.
Christina recounted that they were together for eight years and allegedly had over 100 sexual encounters. Later on, she was introduced to Mia Farrow, who was still Woody’s girlfriend back then. We could imagine that it was a confusing and hurtful moment on Christina’s part. Here she was, dating a man 25 years her senior since she was a minor, and just ended up feeling like a sidechick.
She also realized that Woody had used their relationship as a storyline for Manhattan, which is a film about a 17-year-old having a relationship with an older man played by the director himself. “How was our partnership not something more than just a fling? … How could he deconstruct my personality and our life together as if it were just some fictional creation for art house fatheads to pore over?” Christina said.
Meanwhile, actress Stacey Nelkin, who dated Woody when she 17, claimed as well that the film was about their relationship. But, based on Woody’s Princeton papers that The Washington Post unearthed, the director really has a penchant for creating stories about sexual relationships between middle-aged men and teenagers.
It doesn’t matter who Manhattan is specifically about at this point. What this tells us is that 1) He really preys on younger girls (as if that wasn’t obvious enough) and 2) He seemingly does it so he has material for his next blockbuster hit.
Not only is he taking advantage of minors who, by law, aren’t capable of giving consent, Woody Allen is using them for the sake of art. Still, here he is, considered a “film icon.” But remember, even the oh-so powerful Harvey Weinstein couldn’t save himself from the severity of his actions and the power of the #MeToo movement. Yet Woody considered it a witch hunt all while denying all the sexual assault allegations directed at him.
As the iconic Idris Elba said: “[The #MeToo movement] is only difficult if you’re a man with something to hide.”
Art by Marian Hukom
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