Woody Allen is still busy suing Amazon for $68 million, but he’s been up to something else, too: Per the New York Times, the filmmaker has been quietly pitching a memoir to publishers. Over the last year, executives from at least four major publishing houses told the Times that they were approached by an agent representing Allen, but declined to offer him a book deal for a new memoir. Some publishers even declined to read Allen’s manuscript.
Allen has faced increased scrutiny during the #MeToo movement and with the reemergence of sexual-molestation accusations against him by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. (Farrow, with the support of Time’s Up, recounted her allegations of abuse last year on CBS This Morning; Allen said that he should be the #MeToo movement’s “poster boy.â€) The unnamed publishing executives speaking to the Times said they didn’t know of any offers made to Allen for a book deal, and described the challenges of working with the director as “toxic.†Allen’s agent John Burnham declined to comment, but told the Times: “For the 30 years that I’ve worked with Woody, the standard mantra on anything is, ‘I can’t discuss his business.’â€