Judd Apatow Fires Back at Diane Keaton Over Her Woody Allen Defense

The vicious cycle of claims and counterclaims in the Woody Allen child-abuse saga continues.

Judd Apatow has renewed his attacks on Allen after longtime collaborator and friend Diane Keaton came to the veteran filmmaker’s defense.

“I see a man who wanted what he wanted and didn’t care that he was having an affair with a 19 year old when he was 54 who was also his daughter’s sister. He also took nude photos of this child who he had known since she was nine and left them out for his family to see. Narcissism,” Apatow wrote on Twitter, referring to Allen’s questionable relationship with Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. The two later married.

Keaton had tweeted earlier that she was standing by her Annie Hall director, writing, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him. It might be of interest to take a look at the 60 Minute interview from 1992 and see what you think.”

Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow, who claims that Allen sexually abused her when she was 7, has renewed her efforts in recent months to have her accusations against her adoptive father taken seriously as the Time’s Up movement has gained steam.

The video retweeted by Keaton showed a 1992 60 Minutes interview with Allen proclaiming his innocence concerning the child-molestation claims.

Actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow split from Allen after she discovered that Allen had started a sexual relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, her adopted daughter, when he was 55 and she was 19. Farrow had stumbled upon a series of nude photographs of Soon-Yi in provocative poses in Allen’s apartment.

Although he and Farrow were not married, they were in a long-term relationship and Allen had formally co-adopted two adopted children, Dylan and Moses. They also had a biological child together: Ronan Farrow, the renowned journalist who helped expose Harvey Weinstein.

Allen married Soon-Yi in 1997 and they live together in New York.

Of their relationship, Ronan said: “He’s my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression.”

Allen’s films have often focused on relationships between older men and much younger women.

In one section of the interview retweeted by Keaton, Allen famously produced a “Valentine’s card” from Mia in the interview—sent after she discovered the explicit photographs taken by Allen—which had a knife and skewers stuck through it.

Allen argued Mia was motivated by revenge over his affair with Soon-Yi and that Dylan was “coached methodically to tell this story... by Mia.”

The filmmaker was never charged with any crime, with a state prosecutor saying at the time that despite having “probable cause,” he wished to spare Dylan of the trauma of a trial.

Dylan has long maintained that Allen molested her on Aug. 4, 1992, in the attic of their Connecticut home. In a New York Times piece, she wrote: “[My father] told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me… I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.”

Moses Farrow has suggested Dylan may have been coached, saying, “Based on my own experience, it’s possible that Mia rehearsed with Dylan what she ended up recording on video. As she had done with me, it’s conceivable she set the stage, the mood, and scripted what was to take place.” He also alleged that Mia Farrow physically abused him during his youth.

However Dylan’s brother Ronan has supported her claims.

Critics of Apatow on social media were quick to accuse the filmmaker/superproducer of hypocrisy for denouncing Allen but declining to make a public comment on James Franco, a longstanding collaborator and friend, who has been accused of serial sexual misconduct.

Franco has denied the claims, but said: “If I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I don’t know what else to do.”