Woody Allen Hits Back at HBO Documentary: ‘A Hatchet Job Riddled with Falsehoods’

Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, have broken their silence on the new HBO documentary series Allen v. Farrow, which began airing on Sunday. The couple’s spokesperson called it a “hatchet job riddled with falsehoods,” noting that HBO has a business relationship with Allen’s son, Ronan Farrow.

In a statement issued Monday, the spokesperson alleges that documentarians Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick only approached Allen and Previn less than two months ago and gave them just days to rebut sexual abuse accusations made by actress Mia Farrow and her daughter, Dylan.

“These documentarians had no interest in the truth. Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods,” the spokesperson said in the statement, which was sent to multiple news outlets. “Woody and Soon-Yi were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days ‘to respond.’ Of course, they declined to do so.”

The statement continues:

As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place. It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO – which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.

Watch below: 

Filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick have previously faced accusations of shoddy reporting for their Oscar-nominated documentary The Hunting Ground, about campus “rape culture.”

The 2015 movie, which aired on CNN, came under fire after several professors at Harvard Law School accused the documentarians of playing loose with the facts, including portraying one young man as a rapist when he had been cleared of charges.

The left-wing Slate and The Harvard Crimson also accused the documentarians of inaccuracies and misrepresenting statistics.

HBO signed a three-year deal with Ronan Farrow in 2018 under which the journalist would develop investigative documentary specials for the premium cable network. (Allen v. Farrow isn’t part of that deal.) Ronan Farrow has consistently sided with his mother and his sister against Woody Allen.

Mia Farrow and her daughter Dylan have long claimed that Allen sexually abused then-seven-year-old Dylan during a visit in 1992. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations. The Connecticut state prosecutor declined to press charges against Allen and the New York Department of Social Services found “no credible evidence” to back Farrow’s accusations.

The Farrow’s have used the #MeToo movement to resurrect their claims against Allen and have attempted to blacklist him in the entertainment industry. Amazon Studios cut ties with Allen in 2018 in the midst of a multi-picture deal. Allen eventually settled a $68 million lawsuit against the studio.

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