Who is Woody Allen? I was curious so I did a little checking. Without my usual eloquent elaboration here are some basic facts I learned.
Woody Allen got married for the first time in 1954 to Harlene Rosen. He was 19 and she was 16. The marriage took place in California with the blessing of Harlene’s parents. Reportedly it was Allen’s parents who were more resistant to the joining.
The marriage lasted about five years. After the divorce, Allen referred to Harlene as “the dread Mrs. Allen” in his comedy act and she sued him for defamation regarding comments he made on TV.
Later, when Allen was in a relationship with Mia Farrow, who he never married, he was discovered (while they were still a couple) with nude photographs he had taken of Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s adopted daughter who was about 19 years old at the time.
Later, Allen described Farrow’s discovery of the photographs as “one of the great pieces of luck” in his life. Allen later denied this series of events was a “scandal.”
What was the scandal? I fell in love with this girl, married her. We have been married for almost 15 years now. There was no scandal, but people refer to it all the time as a scandal and I kind of like that in a way because when I go I would like to say I had one real juicy scandal in my life.
Source: Reuters
After the relationship with Farrow ended, Allen was free to pursue Soon-Yi Previn. Allen was 57 and Soon-Yi was reportedly about 19. They were married about five years later in 1997 and remain married to this day. There is a 35-year difference in ages.
When asked about the age difference, Allen famously shrugged it off, saying, “The heart wants what the heart wants.”
Shouts from the Abyss 
I don’t think anyone is going to walk away from this clean…
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He kept it classy each step of the way, right? Nothing but class.
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Never have those words sounded creepier to me.
They remind me why, in a lawyerly fashion, I always have to add a caveat after saying “I just want you to be happy” to my son. The caveat is: “Within the realms of law and morality.” We’ll dive into what that means more as he grows.
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Thanks for stopping by. It’s been a while but I still read your wonderful blog as often as I can.
I tried hard to include only stipulated and factual information in this post. It was pretty hard to withhold editorial comment. What I find incredible, like you, is that the a standard “within the law” is one that is remarkably low.
In Woody Allen’s world it is not scandalous to take naked pictures of your girlfriend’s teenage step-daughter. I find that mindset extremely telling.
A cold and unbiased look at basic facts like the above, I feel, makes several things clear, as least to my way of thinking: Woody is horny, Woody likes ’em young, and Woody doesn’t feel there should be limits on what he wants.
Teaching limits? You are an unparalleled parent! 🙂
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Woody Allen is just all wrong – and gross.
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He doesn’t strike me as a paragon of class. As such I tend to believe the allegations are believable. Why should we automatically assume she’s lying?
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Despite what anyone (except Allen himself) would label an absolute character destroying scandal, Allen remains lionized and beloved within the show biz community. “The heart wants what the heart wants” sounds an awful lot like “Boys will be boys”. Neither one of these dopey phrases is particularly horrible until you attach it to something which is otherwise despicable. There are any number of celebrities whose minor missteps resulted in the ends of their careers and yet this guy seems indestructible. I don’t think of him as a comic genius, a brilliant film maker or any kind of special talent, but I wouldn’t go see his movies even if I did. People want to deport Justin Bieber, but Hollywood is busy erecting statues of Woody Allen. (They’re not really erecting statues, just giving him little gold ones for his movies).
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The wagons love to circle the gravy train, don’t they? I don’t think his movies are that great, either. Plus, I think he’s the inventor of the Orgasmatron. Methinks he’s got something on his brain a little too much.
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Meanwhile, Roman Polanski is sitting in exile looking at Woody and going “WTF?”
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Oof. Nice juxtaposition of the past to the present. I agree with 1PP about the use of “the heart wants what the heart wants” as a get-out-of-jail-free excuse.
I’m trying not to follow the latest bit — I can’t figure out if that makes me shallow, or whether following it makes me shallow.
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That bit about “the heart wants what the heart wants” sounds rather defensive to me. Almost like a tacit admission of wrongdoing. It’s also what smacks of a huge sense of entitlement. It’s where I get the sense he doesn’t like limits of any kind applied to him.
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“What’s in a name?”
Exactly. *grin*
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Well, he was born “Allan Stewart Konigsberg” so we know one thing for sure. “Woody” was a choice. 🙂
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Ugh. I feel in need of a long, hot shower. Creepy is only one of the adjectives I’d use to describe his behavior. We scorn people of average means and intelligence, people who have no fame or fortune, when they do the things he has. But this cad gets a pass. We are one screwed up society.
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There will always be unknowable and unprovable things. Perhaps we’ll never know what really happened. Maybe he’s as innocent as he says he is. It’s theoretically possible. But it sure doesn’t look that way. If I was in his industry I would sure think twice about hitching my wagon to his horse or publicly defending him and showering him with adoration.
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