On Monday (March 23), Woody Allen released a new memoir, Apropos of Nothing (yes, he’s really shot himself in the foot with that title). The book talks about the director’s career, his relationship with his wife Soon-Yi Previn, and makes new claims against his ex Mia Farrow, saying she was “obsessed” with their son Ronan Farrow – one of the journalists who broke the story on Harvey Weinstein. 

Also in the memoir, Allen makes claims about Timothée Chalamet, arguing that the actor only denounced him in order to improve his own bid for an Oscar. 

The two worked together on Allen’s film A Rainy Day in New York, which wrapped in 2018 and also starred Jude Law, Selena Gomez, and Elle Fanning. You might not remember it because it was never released in the UK or US (it also only has 58 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes). Amazon Studios pulled the film due to new accusations against Allen that surfaced as part of the #MeToo movement, alleging that he was guilty of the childhood sexual abuse of his daughter Dylan Farrow. The film only came out in Poland.

Also in response to these allegations, Chalamet decided to donate all of the money he made from the film to nonprofit organisation, Time’s Up, the LGBT Center in New York, and RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network in America.

In the new book, which is quoted in Page Six, Allen says: “All the three leads in Rainy Day were excellent and a pleasure to work with. Timothée afterward publicly stated he regretted working with me and was giving the money to charity, but he swore to my sister he needed to do that as he was up for an Oscar for Call Me by Your Name, and he and his agent felt he had a better chance of winning if he denounced me, so he did.”

At the time, the actress Rebecca Hall, also in A Rainy Day in New York, donated her profits to Time’s Up, and Greta Gerwig, Mira Sorvino, and Colin Firth were among the other celebrities to denounce the director. 

“The fact these actors and actresses never looked into the details of the case (they couldn’t have and come to their conclusion with such certainty) did not stop them from speaking out publicly with dogged conviction. Some said it was now their policy to always believe the woman. I would hope most thinking people reject such simple-mindedness,” writes Allen in his book, which was initially dropped by Hachette Book Group. Timothée Chalamet’s team have not responded. 

Chalamet is the cover star of the current issue of Dazed China – see the photos from his shoot here.