For decidedly understandable reasons, Woody Allen’s career isn’t what it used to be. Due to accusations of sexual misconduct against him, Amazon canceled its multi-picture deal with the filmmaker, prompting a lawsuit in return — and, ultimately, a settlement between the two. His latest film, A Rainy Day in New York, lacked distribution in the United States and received middling reviews.
Still, despite both the enduring controversy around the filmmaker and the growing sense that he’s long past his artistic prime, Allen still has people willing to pony up large sums of money for his work. This week, Entertainment Weekly broke the news that Hachette will release Allen’s memoir in April.
Titled Apropos of Nothing, the book is set for release on April 7. According to Amazon, it is currently the No. 1 best-selling title in “Mid Atlantic U.S. Biographies,” which is certainly something. Hachette’s description of the book suggests it’s something of a tell-all:
Apropos of Nothing is a comprehensive account of Woody Allen’s life, both personal and professional, and describes his work in films, theater, television, nightclubs, and print. Allen also writes of his relationships with family, friends, and the loves of his life.
If something strikes you as ever-so-slightly strange about Hachette’s involvement in releasing Apropos of Nothing, you’re not the only one. as Maris Kreizman pointed out, Hachette also published Catch and Kill, by Allen’s estranged son, Ronan Farrow.
Hachette choosing to publish Woody Allen after having a major bestseller with Ronan Farrow's reporting on MeToo is really a choice. https://t.co/7eRX8IkuJm
— Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) March 2, 2020
The fact that Allen has been at work on a memoir isn’t fresh news — The New York Times reported that he’d been seeking a publisher for his memoir last year, to no avail. “In the last year, Allen quietly tried to sell a memoir, according to executives at four major publishing houses, only to be met with indifference or hard passes,” wrote Alexandra Alter and Cara Buckley in May of 2019.
What changed? That’s unclear — though in a world where Roman Polanski continues to make films (and win awards for them), something seems very wrong.
Update: On Tuesday evening, Ronan Farrow issued a statement urging Hachette to fact-check Allen’s memoir and said he informed them that “a publisher that would conduct itself this way is one I can’t work with in good conscience.” You can read the full statement below.
Hey, just wanted to share my thoughts on some recent news: pic.twitter.com/ovPczgx8pB
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) March 4, 2020
Update #2: Employees at Little, Brown, a Hatchett imprint, have reportedly walked out in protest of Allen’s memoir.
Employees at Little, Brown, a Hachette imprint, have walked out to protest the company’s decision to publish Woody Allen’s memoir
— Alex Shephard (@alex_shephard) March 5, 2020
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