Woody Allen at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Image by Getty Images

By Aiden Pink October 15, 2017

Woody Allen has said that the sexual assault allegations about Harvey Weinstein are “very sad for everybody involved,” but warned against a “witch hunt.”

The accusations against Weinstein are “tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up,” Allen told the BBC. “There’s no winners in that, it’s just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.”

Allen claimed that he had never heard any stories about inappropriate behavior by Weinstein, who produced many of his films. “But you do hear a million fanciful rumors all the time,” Allen said. “And some turn out to be true and some — many — are just stories about this actress, or that actor.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Allen also warned against people jumping to conclusions about inappropriate sexual relations.

“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,” he said. “That’s not right either. But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.”

One of the journalists who broke the Weinstein story, Ronan Farrow, is Woody Allen’s estranged son. Farrow has accused Allen of sexually assaulting Dylan Farrow, Allen’s daughter, when Dylan was seven years old. Allen denied the allegations.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount