Woody Allen’s memoir canceled by Hachette Book Group after employee protest
Woody Allen’s controversial memoir has been canceled by the publisher, days after it was announced to criticism from Allen’s estranged children, Dylan and Ronan Farrow, and one day after employees of the company walked out in protest.
“Hachette Book Group has decided that it will not publish Woody Allen’s memoir A Propos of Nothing, originally scheduled for sale in April 2020, and will return all rights to the author,” a spokeswoman for the company tells Yahoo Entertainment in a statement. “The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one. At HBG we take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly. We have published and will continue to publish many challenging books. As publishers, we make sure every day in our work that different voices and conflicting points of views can be heard.
“Also, as a company, we are committed to offering a stimulating, supportive and open work environment for all our staff. Over the past few days, HBG leadership had extensive conversations with our staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that moving forward with publication would not be feasible for HBG.”
Dylan, who has long-maintained she was molested by Allen as a 7-year-old in 1992, came out against the publication on the day it was announced. She referred to it as both “deeply disappointing” to her personally and an “utter betrayal” of her brother, Ronan, because his book, Catch and Kill, was published by the same parent company as the one which had planned to publish Allen’s book.
On Friday, she thanked the publishing company’s employees for their support.
To all the employees of @HachetteUS, @littlebrown, and @GrandCentralPub who took a stand, I’m in awe and so very grateful. pic.twitter.com/Si4oXpudde
— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) March 6, 2020
Allen has denied abusing Dylan.
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