Woody Allen

From Philosopedia

Allen, Woody (1 December 1935— )

Allen Stewart Konigsberg (a/k/a Woody Allen) is a skilled clarinetist, a comic, an actor, a writer, and an internationally known film director. His humorous responses to serious questions are a model of secular wit.

Although of Hebrew lineage, when asked if he is a practicing Jew, he has responded, “I’m a practicing heterosexual.” As for God, “Why is man unable to find God, or a plumber, on weekends?” As for logic, “Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.” As to whether or not he would want to know exactly when he would die, “I would definitely like to know the time and place of my death and if a necktie is required.” As for choosing between being popular while alive or immortal after death, “Rather than live on in the hearts and minds of an adoring public, I’d rather live on in my apartment.”

The films he directs focus often on urban characters preoccupied with sex, death, and psychiatry. These include Take the Money and Run (1969), Play It Again, Sam (1972), Love and Death (1977), and Manhattan (1979). In the autobiographical movie, Stardust Memories, his character is called an atheist. “To you, I’m an atheist,” the character states. “To God, I’m the loyal opposition.”

To Britisher Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian Weekend (29 March 1997), Allen said,

• I am a Jew only in the sense that I was born into a Jewish family. I have no interest in the organized religions beyond a certain cerebral historical curiosity. They are all nonsense to me in their basic premises. . . . I’m agnostic, but I have one foot in atheism.

To Gail Zimmerman, who interviewed him in Chicago Jewish News (24-30 Aug 2001), Allen made these observations:

• I was a nice child. I didn’t have a miserable childhood. My parents loved me. I was a very, very bad student, but I was not unpopular. I was a good athlete, the first one picked, not the last one. I didn’t like school at all. I didn’t function in school. But amongst the kids it was fun.

• The Jewish culture—people who are Jewish—have certain cultural habits that they’ve formed and one of those habits is an appreciation of theater and music. They like that very much. And since I’m in show business, I would fall into that category of things that would interest them. Culturally speaking, I was raised in a Jewish household and in addition to the negative religious side of it, I was also taught respect for books and respect for learning and respect for the higher professions: medicine, law, and teaching. An interest in films and theater and classical music—these are cultural things that one does associate with values that are promulgated by Jewish families. And I think that’s a good thing.

• I don’t feel that I should feel the pain of a Jewish person any more than the pain of a gentile person. It’s not right.

• I was raised in a religious home and it was unreasonable and forced religion that turned me off it. . . . I’ve never gotten over that feeling. And I hold a very, very dim view of all the religions. {The Freethinker, May 1997; Dennis Middlebrooks, 5 Sep 2001}

The Warring Lovebirds

Hollywood, Book of Scandals (McGraw Hill, pp. 219-228, 2004), by James Robert Parish, describes what the author calls one of the strangest show business unions to date:

He was a Jewish, East Coast intellectual, while she was Catholic and a Tinseltown star. Comedic five-foot, five-inch Allen gained show business fame and his endearing schlemiel persona. In contrast, petite Farrow (who weighed 98 pounds), made her mark playing radiant, troubled young gamines (as in TV's Peyton Place and the feature film Rosemary's Baby). Woody was a self-focused artist, a devotee of Freudian therapy, and a man so engrossed in moviemaking that he cared little for such domestic niceties as children. In contrast, tantalizing Mia, a Hollywood blue blood, envisioned herself a savior of downtrodden youngsters, adopting several along the way.

In 1992, their relationship fell apart disastrously, for Woody was found having a sexual relationship with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, a Vietnamese-born teenager. The battle led to Woody's seeking custody of their three children (two of whom the couple had adopted), but Mia charged Woody with allegedly sexually molesting their eight-year-old adopted girl.

Woody's first marriage had been with Louise Lasser, an actress he wed in 1964 and divorced in 1969. His much-publicized girlfriends were actress Diane Keaton in the 1970s and Mia in the 1980s. In 1987, Farrow gave birth to Allen' child whom they called Satchel. He married his stepdaughter, Soon-Yi Previn (born 8 October 1970), on 23 December 1977.

Farrow was one of actor Maureen O'Sullivan's seven children and of John Farrow, an Australian-born screenwriter and director. Roman Catholic, she attended parochial schools in Los Angeles and was educated at an English convent. When 22 in 1966, she married superstar Frank Sinatra when five years younger than his daughter Nancy - they divorced in 1968. She then married André Previn in 1970, divorcing in 1978 but having six children, one with Previn. One that she and Previn adopted was Soon-Yi Previn. Reporters pointed out that she cohabited in the 1980s, then later was his mother-in-law.

As detailed by Parish,

• On the afternoon of January 12, 1992, Mia came by Woody's apartment with Satchel in tow. Woody was at his office on Park Avenue. While waiting in the den for her son's therapy appointment to be finished, she came across a stack of Polaroids on the fireplace mantle. She was shocked to discover that the shots of a naked woman were of her 19-year-old, Soon-Yi, a college student who wanted to be in films.

The enmity continued. A Frog Hollow neighbor told Farrow that her babysitter had been at the Farrow house the previous day

• and, supposedly, had seen Allen cuddling Dylan in an inappropriate way. (Mia later claimed that Dylan confided that Allen had taken her up to Mia's bedroom where, in the crawl space of the closet, he had allegedly touched her "privates." ) After rushing the child to the family pediatrician, who found no apparent evidence of sexual abuse, the matter was reported, by law, to the police.

Lawyers for both went to work, as did the media.

• In March 1993, the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital issued its report, concluding that Dylan had not been abused and that the child, for whatever reason, had not told the truth. It also suggested that Mia should receive counseling to aid her relationship with her young offspring.

Meanwhile Allen lost his custody case, was required to pay Farrow's legal fees in the case, and by the end of 1995 Farrow stopped allowing Satchel's visits with Allen. Farrow's autobiography, What Falls Away, in 1997 was followed by her adopting more children.

Concluded Parish:

• In the wake of the huge scandal, Allen and Farrow suffered incredibly adverse reaction from the public. This was especially true in the case of Woody, who had seemed such a moral paragon with his lovable, nebbishy, neurotic persona. As had happened with the similarly idolized Ingrid Bergman in the late 1940s when she abandoned her family for her Italian filmmaker lover, Allen proved he was all too human and, for that, moviegoers were slow to forgive - if they ever did.