Following on from Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Hall declaring they would be donating their salary from Woody Allen‘s new film A Rainy Day in New York to charity, noted weird unit Alec Baldwin has come out in vehement defence of the extremely troubled director.
Allen, who has been the subject of a raft of sexual allegations spanning practically his entire career, is under fire once again after a string of articles from Dylan Farrow and Ronan Farrow renewing their charges that Allen molested his adopted daughter Dylan when she was seven years old.
Scores of actors have since expressed regret about having past professional associations with Allen, including the likes of Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Mira Sorvino, David Krumholtz, and Griffith Newman.
Baldwin, however, has issued a strident defence of Allen on Twitter, stating that not only is the treatment the 82-year-old director receiving “unfair and sad,” but that working with Allen was one of the great privileges of Baldwin’s career.
Woody Allen was investigated forensically by two states (NY and CT) and no charges were filed. The renunciation of him and his work, no doubt, has some purpose. But it’s unfair and sad to me. I worked w WA 3 times and it was one of the privileges of my career.
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) January 16, 2018
Is it possible to support survivors of pedophilia and sexual assault/abuse and also believe that WA is innocent?
I think so.
The intention is not to dismiss or ignore such complaints. But accusing ppl of such crimes should be treated carefully. On behalf of the victims, as well.— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) January 16, 2018
Allen has steadfastly maintained his innocence, asserting that former partner Mia Farrow coached her adopted daughter Dylan into making the allegations.
Baldwin issued the tweets from his foundation’s account, after he abandoned his personal Twitter feed in late 2017 amid a row in which he was accused of victim blaming.
Neither Allen, nor his representatives, have issued comment on the string of high-profile actors distancing themselves from him and his work. However in 2014, after Dylan Farrow’s initial reports were published, Allen penned a long defence of himself in the New York Times that doubled down on his assertions that Dylan had been coerced into the accusations by her mother, part of which read:
No one wants to discourage abuse victims from speaking out, but one must bear in mind that sometimes there are people who are falsely accused and that is also a terribly destructive thing.
