Site last updated: Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Log In

Reset Password
MENU
Butler County's great daily newspaper

People

Woody Allen

NEW YORK — 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.

Attorney Robert Klieger told U.S. District Judge Denise Cote that the company protected itself after Allen made “public comments that at a minimum were insensitive to the #MeToo movement.”

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, “A Rainy Day in New York.”

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.

“The baseless allegations against Mr. Allen are decades old,” Quinn said. He added that the claims were well known when Amazon signed its deal with Allen in August 2017.

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.

In 2014, Farrow wrote about the allegations and then appeared in an interview early last year for the first time.

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.

The lawyer said the company had also cited claims that people in the industry won't work with Allen.

Regardless, Quinn said, Allen planned to produce a new movie this summer.

———

NEWARK, N.J. — Wendy Williams has filed for divorce after nearly 22 years of marriage to her husband and manager.

Her attorney, Mary Vidas, said the papers were filed in Essex County, N.J., where the talk show diva has a home. Vidas would not comment further on what she called “a private family matter.”

The 54-year-old Williams and 46-year-old Kevin Hunter have a 19-year-old son, Kevin Jr.

A representative for the “The Wendy Williams Show” said that “Kevin is supportive of Wendy and they are working through this process together.”

Williams recently told her audience that she was “still very much in love” with her husband and that her wedding ring wasn't “going anywhere.”

She also disclosed last month she was living in a “sober house” because of addiction struggles.

———

FAIRFAX, Va. — Actress Amber Heard asked a judge Thursday to dismiss a $50 million defamation lawsuit her ex-husband Johnny Depp filed over an op-ed about domestic violence she wrote in The Washington Post, and provided new evidence toward her allegations of abuse.

In the motion filed in the Circuit Court of Fairfax, Va., Heard describes in new detail more than a dozen instances before and during their marriage when she says Depp slapped her, shoved her, pulled her hair or choked her.

Depp has denied any such abuse. The allegations have appeared in the couple's divorce and other legal fights.

Heard includes exhibits such as photos of her with bruises on her face and scars on her arms, images of damage she says Depp did to their home, and newly revealed screenshots of text messages describing the incidents at the time, and excerpts of her divorce deposition describing domestic abuse.

<br />

More in Arts & Entertainment

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

* indicates required
TODAY'S PHOTOS