Woody Allen Perfectly Captures Hollywood’s Moral Confusion

Woody Allen is back, even if few in Hollywood are happy about it.

The legendary director’s 50th film, “Coup de Chance,” debuted at the Venice Film Festival. The drama is earning solid reviews so far, but it won’t play in any U.S.-based festival and may struggle to reach a single stateside theater.

And we all know why.

Hollywood, which once overlooked allegations that Allen sexually molested daughter Dylan Farrow. turned on the auteur during the MeToo movement’s peak. No new evidence changed their minds. The cultural flow changed, and the industry went along with it.

The same actors who flocked to his movie sets for decades, often earning Oscars for their trouble, suddenly turned on Allen. Some apologized for appearing in his films. Others donated their salaries to assuage their guilt.

Allen, 87, kept on making films, except he mostly works outside the U.S. and casts from a smaller pool of recognizable talent.

You could say he’s been “canceled,” except Allen dismisses the notion.

I don’t know what it means to be canceled. I know that over the years everything has been the same for me. I make my movies. What has changed is the presentation of the films. You know, I work and it’s the same routine for me. I write the script, raise the money, make the film, shoot it, edit it, it comes out. The difference is not from cancel culture. The difference is the way they present the films.

Call it what you wish, it’s clear Allen’s iconic career is over through no fault of his talents or age. Doubts remain about the charges in question, but he’s gone through the legal process and come out clean.

It’s just not “hip” to embrace Allen today – much like Hollywood finally turned on Roman Polanski despite giving the admitted child rapist a standing ovation at the 2003 Oscars ceremony.

Yet Hollywood is happy to do business with Ezra Miller, the “Flash” star accused in two separate grooming episodes along with other violent confrontations.

Had the summer film made a fortune Warner Bros. Discovery appeared eager to work with Miller again.

Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on the 2021 set of “Rust” and kept on working. That’s despite fears his actions as a producer on the film played a part in the tragedy, not to mention his responsibility in handling a firearm in the safest way possible.

That doesn’t include his past behavior, involving harassment, accusations of gay and racist comments and his possible #MeToo misbehavior.

“I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way. I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women. Not as a rule,” he said. “From time to time, I’ve done what a lot of men do, which is … when you don’t treat women the same way you treat men. You don’t. I’m from a generation where you really don’t and I’d like that to change. I really would like that to change.”

If that’s what he admitted without being pressured or accused, his actions might have been worse.

Baldwin even resumed production on “Rust” after the fatal accident.

Let’s not forget Roseanne Barr.

The caustic comic fired off one ugly, racially-charged Tweet and watched her Hollywood career come crashing down around her.

Hollywood morality is a funny thing, but few are laughing about it. Polanski’s monstrous actions were ignored until it wasn’t hip to keep doing so. The accusations against Allen didn’t give Hollywood, Inc. pause until #MeToo woke many artists up to the monstrous actions of a few industry predators.

Barr got canceled because she crossed the culture’s third rail – race – and embraced President Donald Trump.

Ironically, it was the man who inadvertently kick-started the MeToo movement who may have summed it up best.

“Hollywood has the best moral compass because it has compassion,” said Harvey Weinstein in 2009, part of his effort to free Polanski from being ostracized by his industry for the director’s “so-called crime.”