Topless activists crash Woody Allen concert
July 12, 2017
Filmmaker Woody Allen, renowned for films such as "Annie Hall" and "Match Point," is also a clarinet player and has been touring with his New Orleans Jazz Band for decades.
Their concert at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on Tuesday was interrupted as two women appeared on stage and started shouting slogans, their topless bodies painted with messages in the style of the women's rights organization Femen.
The activists were taken away from the stage and the concert continued afterwards.
According to the German tabloid newspaper "Bild," the two activists were attempting to read a letter from Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s. Farrow's open letter about the alleged sex abuse was published via "The New York Times" in 2014, but the legendary film director was never prosecuted.
After Tuesday's show, Femen activists also handed out flyers to concert-goers saying that a lack of legal decision in the matter was not proof of Allen's innocence.
The now 81-year-old filmmaker has always denied any wrongdoing . At the end of the concert, Allen issued a short statement describing the women involved in the protest as "stupid," according to reports by local Hamburg newspaper "SHZ."
eg/kbm (with dpa)