# Woody Allen's autobiography cancelled by publisher **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028 "2020-03-06T21:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/61 "2020-03-14T21:17:58Z")
> [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > [Stephen King](https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1236051775523893248) is coming in for another hot take (I forget what he said recently, but I gave him a bit of side-eye). > > They’re not muzzling him, my dude. They were trying to get the money from selling his books AND not pissing off their staff and stable of writers. Allen has his first amendment rights to speak and write whatever he wants. No one has to publish it, however. > > The unmitigated gall of these assholes to have Ronan on one hand and sneaking and hiding Woody on the other hand. This is really the whole answer to why Woody Allen’s autobio was dropped: money. Ronan Farrow + avoiding bad PR is worth a lot more to the publisher in the long run than one controversial book that could get boycotted anyway. I know which side I’d bet on. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/62 "2020-03-14T21:44:50Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > No one is stopping Allen from writing anything. Fortunately, we’re mostly not forced to consume his works - except that supposed DEBBIE DOES DALLAS tape (VHS) with ZELIG overdubbed. Bummer. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/63 "2020-03-14T22:35:53Z")
Here are three websites with statistics about how much money Allen’s films have made, with some of them adjusted for inflation. > **[Woody Allen films: production costs and global box office revenue 2018 |...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/323436/woody-allen-films-production-costs-box-office-revenue/)** > > The statistics shows the production costs and the global box office revenue of movies directed by Woody Allen from 2000 to 2018. > **[The Box Office Gross Of Every Woody Allen Movie Adjusted For Inflation](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peterlauria/the-box-office-gross-of-every-woody-allen-movie-adjusted-for)** > > Saying Blue Jasmine is the famed director's highest-grossing film to date isn't entirely accurate. > **[Ranking of Woody Allen highest grossing films - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/list/ls059718010/)** > > Ranking of Woody Allen highest grossing films > **[Woody Allen at the box office: The hits and the misses](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woody-allen-at-the-box-office-the-hits-and-the-misses/)** > > See which of Woody Allen's films have fared well at the box office over the years, and which ones have tanked He’s worth about $80 million at the moment. > **[Woody Allen's Net Worth, Plus His Family's Reaction to His Upcoming Memoir](https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/woody-allens-net-worth-plus-his-familys-reaction-to-his-upcoming-memoir.html/)** > > Here's Woody Allen's net worth, plus what his daughter just said about his recently announced memoir. His movies have always cost relatively little to make. The early ones tended to make more money (adjusted for inflation). Even when his movies lose some money, it tends to be a pretty small amount compared to the cost of the big-budget films that you think of being what Hollywood mostly does. Allen has always (at least up to recent times) been able to get well-known actors to appear in his films for reasonable salaries, and his films have mostly gotten good reviews. Until a few years ago, what the studios said to themselves was that Allen’s films never made large amounts of money, but on average they made enough to pay back their investments while winning some awards. However, in the past couple of years it’s become clear that they no longer are really worth it. There are enough people angry at Allen that the chances of the movies making money aren’t good enough to be worth any studio backing him. Given that Allen is 84 years old and has $80 million of his own money to invest in his films, he could keep making films for the rest of his life with only small contributions from distributors, but it’s not clear whether he would want to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/64 "2020-03-15T01:18:14Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I would have an affair with an attractive 16 year old girl if the law allowed it. Ew ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/65 "2020-03-15T01:59:43Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Allen said a few years back he doesn’t know why he gets money to make movies since the box office take is so small. He added that as long as the money is there he will keep making movies. His movies are so small, he could fund his own productions. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/66 "2020-03-18T20:50:23Z")
Bret Stephens, a New York Times columnist, has [a good column](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/opinion/woody-allen-memoir.html)on the controversy. His closing statement is worth quoting. > [@](#): > > It matters because cancel culture threatens our collective well-being in multiple and fundamental ways: The banishment of unpopular people; the unwillingness to examine contrary threads of evidence and entertain opposing points of view; the automatic conflation of accusation with guilt; the failure of nerve by people entrusted with preserving the institutions of liberal culture; the growing power of digital mobs; the fear these mobs instill in any would-be contrarian or gadfly who thinks to venture a heterodox view. These threats go to the heart of what it means to sustain the habits of a free society. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/67 "2020-03-18T23:55:21Z")
He sure lived the spirit of those words when he tried to get some random guy, who didn’t even tag him, fired from his job for making a bedbug joke as his expense. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/68 "2020-03-18T23:57:20Z")
That’s the bedbug guy? What a joke! ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/69 "2020-03-19T00:45:08Z")
An imperfect messenger to be sure, but the message is valid. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/70 "2020-03-20T00:54:47Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > That’s the bedbug guy? What a joke! Yep, that was idiotic. So now what? Do we cancel everything he says from here on in? Can we only cite people who are absolutely perfect and never have said or done anything stupid? Is there anybody in the public eye who can pass that test? Do we have to do homework on every cite to learn their entire histories? We’re all entitled to make judgements about the worth of individuals and their opinions. We’re all entitled to make judgements about entertainers and whether we wish to support them. People always have and always will. My judgement is that cancel culture is a really bad thing. I’m going to agree with those who also think so. Note that cancel culture is not at all the same as holding people responsible for acts of true harm. The latter is necessary to a functioning society; the former is a tantrum. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/71 "2020-03-20T01:21:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yep, that was idiotic. So now what? Do we cancel everything he says from here on in? Can we only cite people who are absolutely perfect and never have said or done anything stupid? Is there anybody in the public eye who can pass that test? Do we have to do homework on every cite to learn their entire histories? > > We’re all entitled to make judgements about the worth of individuals and their opinions. We’re all entitled to make judgements about entertainers and whether we wish to support them. People always have and always will. > > My judgement is that cancel culture is a really bad thing. I’m going to agree with those who also think so. Note that cancel culture is not at all the same as holding people responsible for acts of true harm. The latter is necessary to a functioning society; the former is a tantrum. It’s a panic about “cancel culture”. These idiots are afraid it’s going to come for them. But it’s not… not unless they did something awful. The rich and powerful (or many of them, anyway) are terrified, because now their actions, past, present, and future, might have consequences. They thought that consequences were just for the little people - they thought wealth and influence would protect them. The idea that maybe they’ll have to face the same possibilities and risks that everyone else faces is absolutely terrifying to them. We should mock idiots like Bret Stephens. No need to “cancel” him, mockery will do just fine. At least until he shows some self awareness. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/72 "2020-03-20T02:05:12Z")
I remember George Lucas saying he wanted to get money to do the film Red Tails. Clearly he had plenty of his own cash he could use. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/73 "2020-03-20T03:08:13Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s a panic about “cancel culture”. These idiots are afraid it’s going to come for them. But it’s not… not unless they did something awful. It would be nice to live in that dream world. But it’s not reality. Any reading of the news over the past few years would reveal numerous people who were not rich and powerful who said the wrong thing and had their careers derailed. There is no reality in which cancel culture affects only the Harvey Weinsteins. Cancel culture is not synonymous with #MeToo. It is utterly arbitrary and depends more on Twitter rages than on evidence. It is a parody of itself. I know no better example than [Help Decide the Top 1,000 Comedians of 2019](https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/top-1-000-comedians-of-2019-zach-broussard.html). Comedian Zack Broussard had been issuing comedic listings of the top 1000 comedians for several years, changing the rules constantly. For 2019 he topped himself. > [@](#): > > “Genuinely, I think this will be THE MOST ACCURATE LIST YET,” Broussard tells Vulture. “Why? Because I’m giving everyone the power to cancel any comedian on the list with a click of a button.” > > That’s right — from today through this Friday at midnight, you can visit [Top1000Comedians.com](http://Top1000Comedians.com), check out the list for yourself, and “cancel” any comedians you feel deserve to be knocked off. “My hope is to make sure the Top 1,000 Comedians list is 100 percent creep free, asshole free, and weirdo free. If a comedian ever slighted you in any way, you now have the power to make sure they don’t receive this elite honor of ranking in the top 1,000 of their craft,” Broussard explains. “My vision every year is to rank my peers from best to worst based on their buzz, but this year I learned that not all buzz is good buzz. Some comedians with the most buzz in 2019 are being buzzed about for truly terrible things. As comedy nuts (fans) we need some way to ‘cancel’ comedians with too much bad buzz.” If a lot of comedians get “canceled” from the list, Broussard says not to worry — he already has about 2,000 comedians’ names waiting in the wings to take their place. “Hopefully by Friday we’ll have the perfect list of comedians with only good buzz,” he says. The result. A list of [1988 canceled comedians](https://cancelcomedians.com/cancelled). And a list of [1000 uncancelled comedians](https://cancelcomedians.com/). I have no idea how the lists are ranked. Nevertheless, I couldn’t identify ten of the top 100 on the cancelled list. You think only the rich and powerful only get cancelled? You think being on that list won’t affect their careers from now on, even if the list was a joke? You really want judgement based on the effort people put into clicking a button on a screen? #MeToo changed our world for the better. Cancel culture is a sewer washing over people, the guilty and the innocent alike. Want proof? > [@](#): > > The example that perhaps sums it all up best is that all 1,000 comedians on Broussard’s list were canceled just two hours after the list went live. All 2,000 comedians slated to take their spots in the event of any cancellations were canceled, too. Broussard ended up adding the option to uncancel anyone on the list who had been previously canceled There’s a distinction worth making. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/74 "2020-03-20T03:10:42Z")
There’s no such thing as “cancel culture.” No one is losing their careers because of cancel culture. What happening now is that people who once had the privilege of being protected from the consequences of their speech now have to face the opinions of formerly silenced people. I don’t feel sorry for them. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/75 "2020-03-20T03:22:58Z")
For every celebrated, successful, rich \_**(full in the blank)** who has revealed deprived, hateful beliefs or actions, there are countless \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ just as talented and with the same potential to be creators of cultural gems for the ages who haven’t had the right luck or opportunities and haven’t said or done something despicable. Let the former enjoy their riches in retirement and the latter step up to show their stuff. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/76 "2020-03-20T03:48:54Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You think being on that list won’t affect their careers from now on, even if the list was a joke? Yes. Obviously. It’s a joke, and one most people have never even heard of unless they are in on the joke. No one looks for a list of cancelled comedians or any other group. Being cancelled means that either (a) you lost your job (or equivalent) after you did something controversial and people complained to your boss, or (b) you’re self employed and people stopped wanting to pay for your stuff because of something you did. So, no, I can’t see how such a list would hurt them, even if it were perceived as serious. Cancelling just doesn’t work that way. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/77 "2020-03-20T04:15:45Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > We’re all entitled to make judgements about the worth of individuals and their opinions. …but apparently we’re not entitled to make judgements about the worth of Bret Stephens and his opinions? :dubious: The bedbug incident is highly relevant because it’s about freedom of speech. Stephens is defending freedom of speech, but he notoriously fails to practice it himself. He’s a hypocrite when it comes to freedom of speech. Yet you seem to be getting upset about anyone making judgements about the worth of his statements on the subject. Let’s be clear about one thing. Nobody is infringing Woody Allen’s freedom of speech. Nobody is stopping him publishing his book through another company, or privately on the internet. Hachette made a business decision that it was going to cause too much hassle to their company to publish, but there are probably 20 other publishing houses falling over themselves to publish it. It’s the same with no-platforming. It doesn’t infringe anybody’s free speech. If a religious fundamentalist knocks on your front door and wants to come in and preach to you about his religion, are you obliged to let him in and listen to him? Are you infringing his freedom of speech if you refuse to do so? Are you not entitled to no-platform a religious evangelist in your own house? How is that different from a university refusing to allow someone whose values are not compatible with the values of the university to speak on their campus? Are they stopping him from speaking anywhere else? Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that other people are forced to listen to you. And it doesn’t mean that publishers are obliged to publish your book. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/78 "2020-03-20T04:37:04Z")
Why should a university promote only a certain kind of liberal, politically correct speech? That’s an odious notion. It was refreshing to see this article trending on the NY Times site: [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/magazine/title-ix-sexual-harassment-accusations.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/magazine/title-ix-sexual-harassment-accusations.html) Maybe the moral panic has crested and will soon recede, just as happened in the 1990s. Fingers crossed. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/79 "2020-03-20T04:54:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Why should a university promote only a certain kind of liberal, politically correct speech? That’s an odious notion. Is a university not entitled to promote any point of view they like? But yes, I agree that there are certainly cases where people have gone overboard. We do need to be careful of extremist ideology on all sides, and not condone witch hunts or character assassinations. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028/80 "2020-03-20T05:54:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s no such thing as “cancel culture.” No one is losing their careers because of cancel culture. What happening now is that people who once had the privilege of being protected from the consequences of their speech now have to face the opinions of formerly silenced people. I don’t feel sorry for them. I’m sure Al Franken, Garrison Keillor and Neil DeGrasse Tyson don’t want you to feel sorry for them. I suspect they’d all like their careers from three or four years ago back. If they’re not undeserving victims of cancel culture, I don’t know who is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woody-allens-autobiography-cancelled-by-publisher/849028.md?page=5)