SHOULD CANNES REPORTERS HAVE CHALLENGED WOODY ABOUT ABUSE CHARGE?

Press conferences at the Cannes Film Festival often drown in the gushes of celebrity journalists who are likely to preface their questions with some fawning remark about how they loved the celebrity’s latest film. This year, however, they are being criticized for not challenging Woody Allen about ancient allegations that he sexually abused his daughter when she was seven years old. Allen was in Cannes to promote his latest film, Cafe Society, which opened the 69th edition of the festival on Wednesday night. Obviously timed to coincide with the opening, The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday published a scathing commentary by Ronan Farrow, Allen’s estranged son, in which he took the press to task for failing to confront Allen about his sister’s (and mother Mia Farrow’s) allegations. In the Los Angeles Times, Steven Zeitchik, who covered the Allen news conference, acknowledged that Farrow’s column “could have prompted a flood of questions to disprove its author’s media criticisms. Instead, it played out like a real-life demonstration of exactly the situation he was describing.” The New York Times carried an article about Allen’s news conference under the heading, “In Cannes, Woody Allen Is Asked About Everything but Accusations.” At a lunch today (Thursday), Allen was indeed asked about Ronan Farrow’s accusations, and he responded, ““I’ve said all I can say about it. I have so moved on that I never think about it. I work, I do my movies and hope that people like them.” He directed reporters’ attention to an Op-Ed piece he had written about the accusations, which appeared in the New York Times in 2014. No doubt he would have done so at the earlier news conference had he been asked, and reporters would have quickly gone on to flatter him and praise his latest film.