Venice Film Festival director defends Roman Polanski, Woody Allen invites: ‘I don’t see where the issue is’
nypost.comVenice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is refusing to row back on his decision to invite controversial movie-biz bigwigs Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson to the late summer event, which will take place despite the potential disruption by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. “Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations.
Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved,” Barbera said in a new interview with Variety. “With them, I don’t see what the issue is.”Polanski, Allen and Besson have been publicly accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct, over a period of years.In the case of Besson, Barbera was referring to the rape accusation of which the director was cleared last month in a French court.
Since 2018, Besson has had multiple charges of sexual misconduct leveled against him, though he denies any wrongdoing.Allen, on the other hand, was New York’s indie darling for decades, before being accused of sexually abusing his stepdaughter Dylan when she was 7 years old.
Allen has repeatedly denied the allegation and has never been charged.Polanski is the only one of the three to have admitted to alleged sexual wrongdoing.
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