The scandal Hollywood is too scared to talk about

Susan Sarandon has said something that most people dare not ever say about filmmaker Woody Allen. And for some reason everyone else is aghast even though they all know about it.

None of the stars in Woody Allen’s films have an opinion on the allegations. Funny that. (Pic: AFP/Valery Hache)

Actor Susan Sarandon has said something that most people dare not ever admit, let alone repeat, about filmmaker Woody Allen.

“I think he sexually assaulted a child and I don’t think that’s right,” she told the press at Cannes Film Festival.

Yep, that’s what she said.

All Sarandon did was mention one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of all time, and for some reason everyone else is aghast even though they all know about it.

They all know about it, but they’re all too scared to talk about it.

So scared that it’s making me nervous. Which is why I’m referring to it as “it” and not just repeating explicitly what Sarandon said.

Susan Sarandon doesn’t mince her words when it comes to Woody Allen. (Pic: AFP/Valery Hache)

I mean, do I really have to repeat her words?

You already know what “it” is: The accusations surfaced in 1992, after Allen broke up with the adoptive mother of the daughter he went on marry, when her other much younger daughter claimed he behaved in a way that pretty much everyone, not just Sarandon, wouldn’t think right.

It’s horrible, the act, if the claims of his since estranged children are true, and it’s still pretty horrible, the accusation, if their stories are made-up. And to be clear, Allen has never been convicted of any offence arising from the allegations.

But you wonder how someone could think or feel nothing, have no opinion, about such a thing.

So why is this scandal involving Allen, unlike every other, now rarely talked about in public?

Some celebrities say that she doesn’t think people should talk about the accusations because they weren’t present at the actual time of the alleged incident.

“My experience with Woody is he’s empowering to women,” actor Blake Lively says.

“You are mistaken if you think there is a place for me, or any outsider, in this family’s issue,” Alec Baldwin says.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Scarlett Johansson says.

And yet all of these celebrities are, in other instances, happy to freely weigh in on other controversial topics of which they know nothing to very little about: the first on slavery, the second on strangers’ sexuality, and the third on international politics.

So what do these actors have in common, other than inconsistencies in their insistence not to talk about what Sarandon talked about? Lively appears in Allen’s film Café Society, Baldwin in his films To Rome With Love and Blue Jasmine, and Johansson in Scoop and Match Point.

One wonders if they would like another role in another of his critically acclaimed and career-boosting films.

Woody Allen and wife Soon-Yi Previn. Previn was the adopted daughter of Allen’s ex-wife Mia Farrow. (Pic: AFP/Alberto Pizzoli)

Incidentally, you know who else has been in an Allen movie?

Adrian Brody was in Midnight in Paris and, when he was asked about the controversy he wouldn’t take a stand either.

“Of course it’s horrible what comes out sometimes, and people have done things in their lives that may be inexcusable, but it’s not something to focus on,” he said.

What a coincidence. Kristen Stewart has been just as evasive on the topic and she, too, appears with Lively in Café Society.

“The experience of making the movie was so outside of that,” Stewart says.

It’s been reported that journalists might be reluctant to write about the scandal because they need to keep in favour with the powerful people who not only represent Allen but also many other high profile celebrities.

Getting off-side with the wrong people could have ramifications for their ability to access the other stars these powerful people represent for other articles they write.

Which could be one reason why most of the reports, including this one, of Sarandon’s comments are about her shocking forthrightness amid so much silence from her fellow celebrities, and not about the “it” she was actually commenting on.

And those comments, that you’d have to be brave to repeat, well, I won’t repeat.

I’ll just let Sarandon say it again.

“I think he sexually assaulted a child and I don’t think that’s right,” she said.