A women’s group wants a Woody Allen statue removed from Spain
‘An abuser and pervert’
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Amanda Erickson.
A prominent women’s group wants a life-size, bronze statue of director Woody Allen gone from Oviedo, Spain.
Allen set his 2008 film “Vicky Christina Barcelona” there, and in 2002, the Princess of Asturias Foundation awarded him Spain’s most prestigious arts prize, the Prince of Asturias, in Oviedo. It also installed a life-size statue, designed by Spanish sculptor Vincente Menendez Santarua, of the director on a shopping street.
Asturias Feminist Organization is petitioning city hall to remove the statue in light of allegations that Allen molested his daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was 7. In a letter, the group argued that the statue of Allen honors “an abuser and pervert.”
Oviedo officials say they’ll consider the proposal during a forthcoming meeting.
The group is responding to allegations — first leveled decades ago — that Allen molested Farrow, the daughter he adopted with ex-partner Mia Farrow. (Allen has denied the allegations and suggested that Dylan and Mia Farrow fabricated the claims because of a bitter custody battle.)
In 2014, Dylan Farrow wrote about her experience in the New York Times. In that piece, she explained:
When I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.
Dylan Farrow and her brother Ronan Farrow have asked actors and actresses not to accept roles in Allen’s films, a campaign that’s taken off thanks to #MeToo. Several actors — including Greta Gerwig, Ellen Page, Colin Firth, Mira Sorvino, Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon — have said they believe Dylan Farrow and would not work with Allen again. Others, including Rebecca Hall and Timothee Chalamet, have donated the salaries they were paid working on Allen’s films to campaigns targeting sexual harassment.
The backlash has gotten so strong that it’s unclear whether — and how — Allen’s latest film, “A Rainy Day in New York,” will be released. Singer Selena Gomez stars in the movie, and fans have questioned why she won’t disavow the director.
Working with Allen is “extremely toxic, and why would you want to surround yourself and your career with potential damaging consequences?” Danny Deraney, a Los Angeles public relations executive who does crisis communications for celebrities, told the Guardian. “I don’t think your performance will be taken seriously. Everyone will be looking at: why did you do it?”
