Woody Allen and the cast of Allen's new film, Café Society, at Cannes
Woody Allen arrived at the Cannes Film Festival to bask in the glow of his latest flick, but instead was mocked for his sleazy past — and even called a sex predator at his own premiere.
“You’ve shot so many of your films here in Europe and yet in the US you haven’t even been convicted of rape,” deadpanned French comedian Larent Lafitte, the master of ceremonies at the screening of Allen’s “Cafe Society.”
The joke — an apparent reference to director Roman Polanski, who in 1978 fled to France after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl — drew heavy gasps from the crowd.
As the 80-year-old “Annie Hall” director suffered in Cannes, his son, Ronan Farrow, piled on back in the United States, publishing a piece in The Hollywood Reporter that revisited allegations that Allen sexually abused Ronan’s adopted sister, Dylan.
Farrow blasted actors who continue to work with his estranged dad.
“Tonight, the Cannes Film Festival kicks off with a new Woody Allen film,” he wrote.
“He’ll have his stars at his side — Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg. They can trust that the press won’t ask them the tough questions. It’s not the time, it’s not the place, it’s just not done.
“There will be press conferences and a red-carpet walk by my father and his wife (my sister).”
But the media didn’t go as easy on Allen as Farrow predicted.
At a press conference held just before his film’s screening, Allen was forced to feign deafness to dodge a question about why his films often include affairs or pair young women with older, creepy men.
In his current film, 26-year-old Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame is in a love triangle with Carell — a gray-bearded 53 years old.