Woody Allen’s publisher has decided to cancel the planned release of his memoir, following days of employee anger and public criticism.
The announcement by Hachette Book Group follows condemnation focused on allegations that the US film director sexually abused his daughter Dylan Farrow.
On Thursday, dozens of Hachette employees staged a walkout.
“The decision to cancel Mr Allen’s book was a difficult one. At HBG we take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly,” the publisher said.
“We have published and will continue to publish many challenging books. As publishers, we make sure every day in our work that different voices and conflicting points of views can be heard.”
Allen’s book, Apropos of Nothing, was scheduled to come out next month.
Allen’s agreement with Hachette meant that he briefly shared a publisher with one of his fiercest critics, his son Ronan Farrow, whose book Catch And Kill was released last year by the Hachette division Little, Brown and Company.
“Hachette’s publishing of Woody Allen’s memoir is deeply upsetting to me personally and an utter betrayal of my brother whose brave reporting, capitalised on by Hachette, gave voice to numerous survivors of sexual assault by powerful men,” Dylan Farrow said in a statement on Monday.
Dylan Farrow subsequently tweeted her thanks to the Hachette employees who protested the publisher’s original decision. “I’m in aware and so very grateful, she wrote.
To all the employees of @HachetteUS, @littlebrown, and @GrandCentralPub who took a stand, I’m in awe and so very grateful. pic.twitter.com/Si4oXpudde
— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) March 6, 2020
Ronan Farrow followed up a day later, calling Hachette’s decision “wildly unprofessional”.
Both he and his sister complained that the publisher had not reached out to them to fact-check their father’s book.
Allen, 84, denies the accusations by his daughter Dylan Farrow, which were the subject of two investigations.
The director was never charged.
