Even the shamers can get shamed.
Film director Spike Lee was forced to apologize over the weekend for supporting his friend and fellow director Woody Allen, who has been accused by his adopted daughter of molesting her when she was seven years old.
“I Deeply Apologize. My Words Were WRONG,” Lee wrote on Twitter. “I Do Not And Will Not Tolerate Sexual Harassment, Assault, Or Violence. Such Treatment Causes Real Damage That Can’t Be Minimized. – Truly, Spike Lee.”
The director of “Do The Right Thing,” whose real name is Shelton Jackson Lee, had defended Allen in an interview Friday on the New York radio station WOR 710, calling Allen “a great, great filmmaker.”
“This cancel thing is not just Woody. And I think that when we look back on it, (we’re) gonna see that, short of killing somebody, I don’t if you can just erase somebody like they never existed. Woody’s a friend of mine,” Lee said. “I know he’s going through it right now.”
Allen has been accused over the years of molesting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in the early 1990s. Allen has always denied the allegation, at one point saying “I never molested my daughter – as all investigations concluded a quarter of a century ago.”
During Allen’s messy divorce from actress Mia Farrow, Dylan alleged that she was abused. While Allen was never criminally charged, presiding Justice Elliott Wilk wrote about the case that “credible testimony … prove[s] that Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her.”
After Allen, now 84, dated Farrow for a decade, the actress found nude pictures of her 21-year-old adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, taken by Allen. The couple split, and Previn, 49, and Allen are now married.
In 2017, when film producer Harvey Weinstein was accused by numerous women of rape and sexual assault, Allen came to his defense, saying he was “sad” for Weinstein.
“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” he added. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up,” Allen said, according to the BBC.
In a weird coincidence, Allen’s own son, Ronan Farrow, is one of the reporters who investigated Weinstein, speaking to 13 women who said the Hollywood producer had sexually harassed or assaulted them and breaking a major story.
Allen said he had no idea about Weinstein, despite working with him on several films.
“No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness,” Allen told the BBC. “And they wouldn’t, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.”
“But you do hear a million fanciful rumours all the time. And some turn out to be true and some — many — are just stories about this actress, or that actor.” …
Allen said he hoped the revelations, which emerged after an investigation by the New York Times, would lead to “some amelioration,” but said: “You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.