Unruly Life of Woody Allen
Page 44
Unlike notables who prostrate themselves in disgrace before the public, Woody has taken the opposite tack. To start, he has refused to admit any wrongdoing in his relationship with Soon-Yi, and needless to say saw no reason for offering amends. He was not married to Mia, nor had they ever lived together, and he certainly was never any sort of father figure to her children with Andre Previn. To be sure, the age gap was rather unusual. And yet older man-younger woman relationships—sometimes with huge age disparities— are commonplace for famous males ( like Donald Trump, Norman Mailer, Clint Eastwood, and Paul McCartney). Had he left Mia for someone other than Soon-Yi, few people would have paid attention. Before Mia, he was known to date young women. For that matter, Manhattan, a poetic romance between a 42-year-old divorcee and a darling high school student, was one of his most cherished movies. It seems that the public, forgiving under certain instances (witness the comeback of wayward stars like Robert Downey Jr.), has not managed to pardon Woody for falling in love with his partner’s daughter, and perhaps even worse, expressing no remorse whatsoever.
Marion Meade
October 2010
New York City
POSTSCRIPT
Harlene Susan Rosen Allen lived in Woodstock, New York, for many years. Insofar as is known, she did not remarry. After winning her lawsuit, she steered clear of her ex-husband and those who wished to pump her for information about him. In 1982 a British writer, Gerald McKnight, tried to win her trust, but she got cold feet at the last minute and refused to meet with him. "We were happy together," she told him on the telephone. "I don't want any scandal." A decade later, another British journalist, Tim Carroll, tracked down Harlene to nearby Phoenicia, New York. Driving up to her house, he glimpsed "a small woman with a shawl wrapped over her head going inside. When I knocked on the door, a muffled voice asked, 'Who is it?' I said that I was calling to see Harlene Allen."
"No such person lives here," she answered.
Fanatical about her privacy, Harlene left Phoenicia without giving a forwarding address.
Louise Lasser lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her Yorkshire terrier. After becoming a popular television star during the seventies in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, she fell victim to depression, obesity, and cocaine addiction and virtually disappeared from public view. In 1998 she made one of her rare forays into movies in the Todd Solandz film Happiness. Although she has little contact with her ex-husband, she continues to care about him "and always will," she said. Like Harlene Allen, she has never remarried after her divorce from Woody. Lasser, seventy-one, continues to act in small roles (National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers).
Diane Keaton's career thrived in the late nineties with several successful films: The First Wives Club, with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler; and Marvin's Room, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. She has never married, but in 1996, at the age of fifty, she adopted a baby girl whom she named Dexter Dean. They live in a 1926 Mediterranean-style hacienda in Beverly Hills. Another Academy Award nomination came along in 2003 for her role in Something’s Gotta Give, which co-starred Jack Nicholson.
Jean Doumanian is no longer Woody’s partner or best friend. After a relationship lasting almost forty years, he sued her and Jacqui Safra in 2001, claiming their production company had cheated him out of $12 million in profits from eight pictures. The suit was settled out of court. A successful Broadway producer now, Doumanian has helped to mount a half dozen shows including August:Osage County, winner of the 2008 Tony for Best Play.
Mia Farrow continues to make an occasional film, but her primary career in recent years has been her activities as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Known for her humanitarian work in Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic, she was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine. In all likelihood she will be remembered for her human rights accomplishments rather than her relationship with Woody Allen. Her family life—as the mother of fifteen in all—has brought about joy and sorrow. Two of her adopted children, Tam and Lark, died. Her three children with Woody have turned out well. After earning a master’s degree from the University of Connecticut, Moses Farrow practices marriage and family therapy. He is married and lives in Connecticut. Malone (formerly Dylan) grew up to be a graphic designer, married in 2010 and lives in Florida. Ronan Seamus Farrow (formerly Satchel), a child prodigy, graduated in 2009 from Yale Law School at the age of twenty-one, works as a journalist and human rights activist for UNICEF in Sudan. Like his siblings, Ronan remains estranged from his father.
Jane Read Martin and Douglas McGrath are married and the parents of a son. Jane became associate producer of the Joan Rivers television show and also wrote several children's picture books. Doug, who received an Oscar nomination as coscreenwriter for Bullets Over Broadway, wrote and directed Emma (1996), which was based on the novel by Jane Austen and starred Gwyneth Paltrow.
Stacey Nelkin became a film actress and appeared in such classics as Halloween 3—Season of the Witch, as well as Bullets Over Broadway. During the custody hearing, she publicly defended her affair with Woody as "mature," adding that he had taught her "a lot about music and film." Now fifty-one, she is a relationship expert and co-author of You Can’t Afford to Break Up: How an Empty Wallet and a Dirty Mind Can Save Your Relationship.
Nancy Jo Sales has written articles for Vanity Fair and New York magazine and specializes in investigative reporting about crime, street gangs, and literary figures. In 1993, while a researcher at People, she published a nostalgic account, "Woody and Me," about her preadolescent crush on the filmmaker and reprinted several of his letters. Still reverent about Woody, she could not help wondering "if I could possibly have had some lasting effect on him, as he so affected me." Nancy Jo is now forty-four.
Andre Previn was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The conductor of five symphony orchestras during his life, he also composed two operas, A Streetcar Named Desire and Brief Encounter. His fourth wife, Heather, filed for divorce after seventeen years of marriage, amid reports, in the Boston Herald, of his relations with a bassoonist in the Pittsburgh Symphony. His fifth marriage to German violinist Annie-Sophie Mutter, ended in divorce in 2006. Previn remains close to Mia Farrow but has no contact with Soon-Yi. "That is a closed chapter," he says.
Arthur Krim suffered a stroke after the demise of Orion Pictures. He died in 1994 at the age of eighty-four.
Nick Apollo Forte has spent the years since Broadway Danny Rose as a fisherman and lounge entertainer. Occasionally, he does a "Broadway Danny Rose" night at Manhattan clubs. "What happened to Nick Apollo Forte," he reported, "is that he never did another movie. When they put the movie in TV Guide now, it’s just Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, never a mention of Nick Apollo Forte. So what did he contribute? How come Nick Apollo Forte never gets another movie job?" Still available for club dates in 2010, Apollo also has a CD for sale on his web site.
Pauline Kael retired from film criticism in 1991, after twenty-three years at The New Yorker. At the age of eighty, she suffered from Parkinson's disease and lived a reclusive life in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She died in 2001.
Ralph Rosenblum turned to television directing after falling out with Woody. He also taught at Columbia University's graduate film school and coauthored a book (When the Shooting Stops... the Cutting Begins) about his life in film editing. After the sixty-nine-year-old Rosenblum died of heart failure in 1995, Woody sent a letter of condolence to his widow, Davida, but did not attend the memorial service.
Marshall Brickman remains a loyal supporter who believes Woody received "a bad judgment" in the custody case. After their last collaboration, Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993, Brickman next cowrote the screenplay for Intersection, a 1994 feature film starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. He co-wrote in recent years the book for two successful Broadway musicals: Jersey Boys and The Addams Family.
Vincent Canby shifted to theater reviewing in 1993,
after a quarter of a century as the New York Times’s chief film critic. After Husbands and Wives, the last Allen picture he reviewed, his opinions of the filmmaker varied. He "wasn't crazy" about Manhattan Murder Mystery; "adored" Bullets Over Broadway; and "hardly remembers the plot" of Mighty Aphrodite, he says. Canby died in 2000.
Justice Elliott Wilk's other prominent trials involved squatters on New York's Lower East Side; civil assault (Mitch Green v. Mike Tyson); and medical malpractice (the Libby Zion case). Wilk died of brain cancer in 2002.
Elaine Kaufman's restaurant was featured in two Woody Allen pictures, Everyone Says I Love You and Celebrity. In 1998 Kaufman made headlines when she was arrested for assaulting a customer whom she had noticed nursing a gin and tonic at the bar. The restaurant celebrated its forty-seventh anniversary in 2010, the year that Kaufman died. Occasionally, Woody still shows up for dinner.
THE CAREER OF WOODY ALLEN
Films
What's New, Pussycat? (Famous Artists/UA, 1965)
Director: Clive Dormer
Screenplay: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Victor Shakapopolis), Peter O'Toole, Peter Sellers
What's Up, Tiger Lily? [Originally Kagi No Kagi] (American International Pictures, 1966)
Director: Senkichi Taniguchi
Screenplay and dubbing: Woody Allen, Len Maxwell, Louise Lasser, Mickey Rose
Casino Royale (Famous Artists/Columbia, 1967)
Directors: John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, Joseph McGrath
Screenplay: Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, Michael Sayers, from the novel by Ian Fleming
Woody Allen (Jimmy Bond), Peter Sellers, David Niven, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles,
Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Paul Belmondo, William Holden
Don't Drink the Water (Avco Embassy, 1969)
Director: Howard Morris
Screenplay: R. S. Allen and Harvey Bullock, from Woody Aliens play
Jackie Gleason, Estelle Parsons, Ted Bessel, Joan Delaney
Take the Money and Run (Palomar Pictures, 1969)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Mickey Rose
Woody Allen (Virgil Starkwell), Janet Margolin, Louise Lasser, Jackson Beck
Bananas (United Artists, 1971)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Mickey Rose
Woody Allen (Fielding Mellish), Louise Lasser, Howard Cosell
Play It Again, Sam (Paramount Pictures, 1972)
Director: Herbert Ross
Screenplay: Woody Allen from his play
Woody Allen (Allan Felix), Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)
(United Artists, 1972)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen from the book by Dr. David Reuben
Woody Allen (Fool, Fabrizio, Victor, Cowardly Sperm), Lou Jacobi, Gene Wilder, Lynn Redgrave, Tony Randall, John Carradine, Burt Reynolds, Louise Lasser
Sleeper (United Artists, 1973)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman Woody Allen (Miles Monroe), Diane Keaton
Love and Death (United Artists, 1975)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Boris), Diane Keaton, Jessica Harper, James Tolkan
The Front (Columbia, 1976)
Director: Martin Ritt
Screenplay: Walter Bernstein
Woody Allen (Howard Prince), Zero Mostel, Michael Murphy, Andrea Marcovicci, Herschel Bernardi
Annie Hall (United Artists, 1977)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
Woody Allen (Alvy Singer), Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duval, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken, Sigourney Weaver
Interiors (United Artists, 1978)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Marybeth Hurt, Diane Keaton, Kristen Griffith, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page,
Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston
Manhattan (United Artists, 1979
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
Woody Allen (Isaac Davis), Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Wallace Shawn, Meryl Streep, Karen Ludwig, Tisa Farrow
Stardust Memories (United Artists, 1980)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Sandy Bates), Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, Marie-Christine Barrault, Tony Roberts, Daniel Stern, Sharon Stone, Louise Lasser
A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy (Orion Pictures, 1982)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Andrew Hobbes), Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Julie Hagerty, Tony Roberts, Mary Steenburgen
Zelig (Orion Pictures, 1983)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Leonard Zelig), Mia Farrow, with Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow, Irving Howe, Bricktop, Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, and Professor John Morton Blum as themselves
Broadway Danny Rose (Orion Pictures, 1984
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Danny Rose), Mia Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte, with Milton Berle, Howard Cosell, and Joe Franklin as themselves
The Purple Rose of Cairo (Orion Pictures, 1985
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Stephanie Farrow, Ed Herrmann, Van Johnson, Dianne Wiest, Zoe Caldwel
Hannah and Her Sisters (Orion Pictures, 1986)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Mickey), Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey, Max von Sydow, Carrie Fisher, Sam Waterston, Julie Kavner
Radio Days (Orion Pictures, 1987)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (narrator), Julie Kavner, Wallace Shawn, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Diane Keaton, Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Judith Malina, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Josh Mostel, Seth Green
King Lear (Cannon Films, 1987
Writer-director: Jean-Luc Godard
Woody Allen (Mr. Alien), Burgess Meredith, Peter Sellers, Molly Ringwald, Norman Mailer
September (Orion Pictures, 1987)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Mia Farrow, Elaine Stritch, Dianne Wiest, Jack Warden, Denholm Elliott, Sam Waterston
Another Woman (Orion Pictures, 1988)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Gena Rowlands, Ian Holm, Mia Farrow, Blythe Danner, Gene Hackman, Betty Buckley, John Houseman, Sandy Dennis, Martha Plimpton
"Oedipus Wrecks" (from New York Stories) (Touchstone Pictures, 1989)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Sheldon Mills), Mia Farrow, Julie Kavner, Mae Questel, George Schindler
Crimes and Misdemeanors (Orion Pictures, 1989)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Cliff Stern), Martin Landau, Alan Alda, Mia Farrow, Anjelica Huston, Sam Waterston, Jerry Ohrbach, Joanna Gleason, Claire Bloom
Alice (Orion Pictures, 1990)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Mia Farrow, William Hurt, Joe Mantegna, Alec Baldwin, Judy Davis, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepherd, Keye Luke, Blythe Danner, Gwen Verdon, Julie Kavner
Scenes from a Mall (Touchstone Pictures, 1991)
Director: Paul Mazursky
Screenplay: Paul Mazursky and Roger L. Simon
Woody Allen (Nick Fifer), Bette Midler, Bill Irwin
Shadows and Fog (Orion Pictures, 1992
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Kleinmann), Mia Farrow, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Madonna, Donald Pleasance, Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster, Lily Tomlin, Kate Nelligan, Julie Kavner, Wallace Shawn
Husbands and Wives (Columbia-TriStar, 1992
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Gabe Roth), Mia Farrow, Juliette Lewis
, Sidney Pollack, Judy Davis, Liam Neeson, Lysette Anthony, Blythe Danner, Benno Schmidt, Jeffrey Kurland
Manhattan Murder Mystery (Columbia-TriStar, 1993
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
Woody Allen (Larry Lipton), Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Adler
Bullets Over Broadway (Jean Doumanian/Sweetland/Miramax, 1994)
Director: Woody Allen
Screenplay: Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath
John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jack Warden, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker, Jim Broadbent, Tracey Ullman
Mighty Aphrodite (Jean Doumanian/Sweetland/Miramax, 1995)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Lenny), Helena Bonham Carter, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rappaport, F. Murray Abraham, Olympia Dukakis, Claire Bloom, Jack Warden, Jeffrey Kurland
Everyone Says I Love You (Jean Doumanian/Sweetland/Miramax, 1996)
Writer-director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen (Joe), Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Natasha Lyonne, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Tim Roth
Deconstructing Harry (Jean Doumanian/Sweetland/Fine Line Features, 1997)