Entertainment

Woody Allen’s memoir cancelled by Hachette after staff walkout: ‘We do not cancel books lightly’


The director’s book has been dropped (Picture: Getty Images)

Woody Allen’s memoir A Propos of Nothing has been dropped by Hachette after a staff walkout.

The publishing company said in a statement: ‘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.

‘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.’

Employees had previously staged a walkout in protest of the publication of the memoir.

According to reports, many of those who walked out sent out an auto-reply email reading: ‘We stand in solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow and survivors of sexual assault.’ Among those who walked out was Little, Brown executive editor Vanessa Mobley, was the editor of Catch And Kill.

Hachette employees staged a walkout (Twitter/Kendra Barkoff Lamy)

The walkout at 3pm was timed with a town hall meeting scheduled by HBG CEO Michael Pietsch, where he had planned to answer questions about why Grand Central acquired Allen’s autiobiography.

Employees stood outside their offices for an hour before going home, according to Slate.

Last year, Mia Farrow’s 34-year-old daughter Dylan reiterated her allegations that her adoptive father Allen abused her when she was seven years old in 1992.

The actor denied the accusations (Picture: Getty Images)

Dylan alleged she was taken to an ‘attic crawl space’ in her mother’s country house and ‘instructed to lie on her stomach and play with her brother’s toy set’ before Allen allegedly ‘touched her labia and vulva’.

During the investigation into Dylan’s allegations against Allen in 1993, Mia was accused of ‘planting’ the story in her daughter’s head in revenge for Allen having an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi.

No charges were pressed against Allen, and he always denied the claims.

Dylan also spoke out against the publication of the book, calling it an ‘utter betrayal’.

Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Allen for comment.

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MORE: Hachette employees walk out in protest of publication of Woody Allen’s memoir

MORE: Dylan Farrow calls publication of Woody Allen’s autobiography ‘an utter betrayal’ of her brother Ronan





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