{"id":209795,"date":"2019-04-13T05:40:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T09:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=209795"},"modified":"2019-04-13T05:40:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T09:40:50","slug":"amazon-woody-allens-metoo-comments-wrecked-movie-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/13\/amazon-woody-allens-metoo-comments-wrecked-movie-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon: Woody Allen’s #MeToo comments wrecked movie deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Allen and possibly Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others, were likely to provide depositions unless the case is resolved through private mediation in coming weeks. (File Photo<\/a>: Electrolux Appliances\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 Woody Allen breached his four-movie deal with the online giant by making statements about the #MeToo movement that damaged prospects for promoting his films, an Amazon lawyer said Friday.<\/p>\n

Attorney Robert Klieger told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote that the company protected itself after Allen made \u201cpublic comments that at a minimum were insensitive to the #MeToo movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing was related to a lawsuit Allen filed in February seeking at least $68 million in damages. The lawsuit said Amazon ended his 2017 contract in June without ever releasing a completed film, \u201cA Rainy Day in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen was not in court. John Quinn, his lawyer, told the judge that Seattle-based Amazon initially claimed it was ending the deal because of allegations made against Allen, not because of his recent statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe baseless allegations against Mr. Allen are decades old,\u201d Quinn said. He added that the claims were well known when Amazon signed its deal with Allen.<\/p>\n

Allen’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, said in 1992 that Allen molested her in an attic when she was 7. Allen has repeatedly denied it.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Farrow wrote about the allegations and then appeared in an interview early last year for the first time.<\/p>\n

Quinn said Amazon has since changed its explanation for terminating the contract to blaming Allen for making statements saying that the #MeToo movement should not become a witch hunt.<\/p>\n

The lawyer said the company had also cited claims that people in the industry won’t work with Allen.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Quinn said, Allen planned to produce a new movie this summer.<\/p>\n

Klieger cited the comment to say it was proof Allen does not need Amazon to finish his films.<\/p>\n

Klieger said that within a month of signing the contract, Allen made public comments about the movement that were insensitive and resulted in controversy \u201cin Hollywood and outside of Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The effect of the comments mean the pictures can no longer be made or promoted, Klieger said.<\/p>\n

After hearing from both lawyers, the judge set a schedule for the case that stretches into next year.<\/p>\n

Allen and possibly Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others, were likely to provide depositions unless the case is resolved through private mediation in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 Woody Allen breached his four-movie deal with the online giant by making statements about the #MeToo movement …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":209797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-larry-neumeister","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209798,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209795\/revisions\/209798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}