Stephen King’s fury at axeing of Woody book
HORROR author Stephen King has slammed publishers for axeing controversial director Woody Allen’s new memoir, saying the decision has left him ‘very uneasy’.
The writer spoke out after publishers Hachette said they would cancel publication Allen’s autobiography Apropos Of Nothing on April 7 following an outcry from the director’s own family and a walkout by staff.
King, whose classics such as The Shining have sold more than 350 million copies, wrote on Twitter: ‘The Hachette decision to drop the Woody Allen book makes me very uneasy. It’s not him; I don’t give a damn about Mr Allen. It’s who gets muzzled next that worries me. Once you start, the next one is always easier.
‘If you think he’s a paedophile, don’t buy the book. Don’t go to his movies. Don’t go listen to him play jazz… vote with your wallet by withholding it. In America, that how we do it.’
Oscar-winner Allen, the acclaimed director of Annie Hall and Manhattan, is accused of molesting his adopted daughter Dylan when she was seven. He has always vehemently denied the charges.
Dylan’s brother Ronan Farrow, whose exposes of Harvey Weinstein helped launched the #MeToo movement, led the attack on Hachette saying he would drop the publisher, whose imprint Little, Brown and Co. published his best-seller Catch And Kill. In an open letter to Hachette he wrote: ‘As you and I worked on Catch And Kill, a book in part about the damage Woody Allen did to my family, you were secretly planning to publish a book by the person who committed those acts of sexual abuse. Imagine this were your sister.’ Yesterday Dylan Farrow thanked more than 75 Hachette employees who walked out in protest to support her. The charges against Allen have been investigated twice over the past three decades but no charges have been brought. Last night a spokesperson for Hachette said: ‘The decision to cancel Mr Allen’s book was a difficult one. We take our relationships with authors very seriously and do not cancel books lightly.’