Woody Deals With Manhattan Nightmare : Filmmaker Allen Denies Allegations of Child Abuse

Seeking to quash “totally false and outrageous allegations,” film director Woody Allen on Tuesday strenuously denied sexually abusing a child that he and his former companion, actress Mia Farrow, adopted together.

Reading from a two-page statement, the publicity-shy director portrayed himself as a victim of “vindictive and self-serving motives” arising from the breakup of his 12-year relationship with the actress and his acknowledged affair with 21-year-old Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, another of Farrow’s adopted daughters.

“In the end the one thing I have been guilty of is falling in love with Miss Farrow’s adult daughter at the end of our own years together and, painful as that might be, I and certainly the children, do not deserve this form of retribution,” Allen, 56, told a packed news conference at the Plaza Hotel here.

The controversy already swirling around Allen as a result of his acknowledgment of his affair with Previn intensified Tuesday with reports that state police in Connecticut, where Farrow maintains a home, began investigating child-abuse allegations after the actress asked a pediatrician to examine one of the children. The physician, whose name has not been disclosed, was required by law to report the mother’s suspicion to authorities.

Farrow’s attorney, Alan Dershowitz, said following the news conference that the child herself had made the charges against Allen.

Farrow and Allen, who maintained separate residences during their 12-year relationship, are engaged in a bitter custody fight over their adopted daughter and son and their natural son.

Looking haggard and distressed, Allen told reporters Tuesday that he had tried for eight months to privately work out a custody agreement with Farrow, resorting to legal action only after she accused him of molesting two of the children.

“This last allegation (about one of the children) has quietly vanished, I suppose, because its substance was too insane even for the instigator (Farrow) to stay with,” he said, adding that Farrow’s attorneys had offered to settle the dispute for $7 million--an offer he rejected.

Dershowitz, however, said the subject of money was raised in a mediation discussion only in connection with child support.

Allen said his lawyers had informed him that allegations of child abuse are “a currently popular though heinous card played in all too many child custody fights.”

Responded Dershowitz: “His lawsuit is the card his lawyers are playing, in an attempt to deflect attention from the investigation of his conduct.”

Despite the somber tone of Tuesday’s news conference, Allen could not resist a joke after he read the statement. “My one appearance and it’s all straight lines,” he ad-libbed. He did not answer questions from reporters.

The increasingly seamy allegations--which include unconfirmed reports that nude photographs of Previn have surfaced in connection with the case--stunned the film community on both coasts and left people wondering about the consequences to Allen’s career.

Most directly affected is TriStar Pictures, which is planning to release Allen’s newest film, “Husbands and Wives,” in eight cities on Sept. 23. Coming on the heels of the poorly received “Shadows and Fog,” the film has been getting high marks in test previews, according to industry sources.

TriStar is being tight-lipped about the plot of the film, which features Allen and Farrow as a married couple, and the outside publicist hired by the studio claims not to have even seen it yet, although press screenings are being held later this week.

The movie contains romantic scenes between Allen, portraying a college professor, and 19-year-old Juliette Lewis, who plays a student. But the relationship stops short of sex, according to TriStar Chairman Mike Medavoy. “They certainly don’t sleep together,” he said.

Also featuring Judy Davis, Liam Neeson and director Sydney Pollack, “Husbands and Wives” marks the director’s 13th collaboration with Farrow.

“The film explores with irony and humor scenes Allen has been concerned with over the year: contemporary relationships, commitment, change and resistance to change, disruption and regeneration and the many facets and complexities of the human heart,” according to program notes the studio plans to distribute to the press.

Allen had intended to take a more visible role than usual in promoting the new film. By Tuesday, frenzied TriStar executives had made no decision as to whether to alter that plan.

Medavoy, whose association with Allen dates back to his days at the now-defunct United Artists, said he did not know how the swirl of publicity would affect the movie.

“I have no idea,” the studio chief said. “All I know is that he’s made a terrific movie. Woody Allen is one of the great talents of this industry.”

Film critic Andrew Sarris said Allen’s sophisticated urban audience was unlikely to desert him. “Most of the people who like Woody Allen are not going to be shocked,” he said. “Middle America never much patronized him, anyway.”

There was some speculation in industry circles that the publicity would actually drive up attendance for “Husbands and Wives.”

“If the film gets extraordinary reviews, do you think people will not go to see it?” said a veteran publicist who wished to remain anonymous. “You can bet, if anything, people will be lining up at the box office to see it.”

Shocking as the news is, he added, it is also likely to cause a re-examination of Allen’s earlier films, including “Manhattan,” where the character portrayed by Allen has an affair with 17-year-old Mariel Hemingway. “If anything, it will give a new understanding to some of the work,” the publicist said.