Charles Grippo on Amazon's response to Woody Allen's lawsuit

I hope he doesn't mind me posting all this.

Reprinting a comment here that appeared in response to an article in Variety about a motion made by Amazon's lawyers in Woody Allen's lawsuit against them:

Charles Grippo says:
APRIL 4, 2019 AT 2:34 PM

Hey, Amazon: As an entertainment attorney, I’d like to offer you some unsolicited, but free advice. If this is the best defense you’ve got to Woody’s lawsuit, here’s what you should do. Start writing out the check for damages now and save yourself from a humiliating public loss in court. And give Woody the rights to A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK which you don’t want anyway. This defense is the most ridiculous defense I’ve ever heard.

First: You knew well before you signed with Woody of the allegations against him by his daughter Dylan. There has been nothing new to her allegations in light of #MeToo, just a rehash of the old ones. Thus you can hardly use those as a reason to get out of your obligations to him. (Memo to Variety: Correct your story: neither Dylan nor her family has ever claimed Woody “raped” her. The allegations, which have been thoroughly debunked, were of “molestation,” which is not the same as rape.)

Second: Movies, in case no one has told you, are a very high risk business. There is no guarantee any movie will match expectations or earn a profit. In fact, most movies lose money. This is true even of films made by directors, stars, and others who have not been accused of sexual assaults or of #MeToo actions. That you “think” you might lose money on a contract is not an adequate defense to pull out of it. Parties lose money on contracts all the time, especially in the film business.

Third: Even before you signed Woody and even before #MeToo, you knew that sometimes his films hit big at the box office, while other films were duds. In a career as prolific as his, no one can create a hit movie every single time. (If you don’t believe me, check the careers of Hollywood legends, like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and others, as well as today’s A-listers.)

Fourth: A whole variety of factors can affect a movie’s performance at the box office: the public’s interest in the material, timing, promotions and publicity, reviews, and a hundred other factors. One could even say that one major reason WONDER WHEEL underperformed was your own distribution’s fault. WONDER WHEEL was a modest little film, which you stupidly released during the height of the Christmas blockbuster season. A film like that has very little chance at that time against all that big budget competition. It would have made more sense to have released it during the normally fallow September-October period, when there weren’t all those big pictures crowding the multi-plex. In fact, I bet if you had released it in September or October, it would have been a big success. So you bear at least part of the blame here.

Fifth: Woody’s comments to Rolling Stone and elsewhere regarding Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement are not so original or earth shaking. Others have said similar things, even including some leaders of the feminist movement, many highly respected commentators, and legal and social scholars. To think those comments in affected his films or career is ridiculous.

SIXTH: Woody has not by any means become a pariah in Hollywood or anywhere else. It’s true a few actors, including some who owe him their Oscars, threw him under the bus (as you are doing) at the first sign of bad publicity. But most of the actors who have worked with him have remained silent. Others, including some A-List big box office stars, have said they would gladly work with Woody if he called them – this all after #MeToo and after Dylan renewed her allegations. (Incidentally you might take the trouble to read the excellent, 4, 800 word blog post by her brother Moses Farrow, a highly respected nationally known psychotherapist, who was in the house at the time of the alleged assault, and who, in that blog post, has completely shredded Dylan’s allegations with facts and evidence. Anyone who believed Woody was guilty will have their beliefs completely turned upside down by the evidence Moses presents in that blog.)

SEVEN: The Spanish company Media Pro has already jumped in to take your place and is financing/distributing a new film which Woody will make this summer in Spain for them. Woody is in pre production with it now. Media Pro has already made many millions and millions of dollars from past Woody Allen films and I am confident Woody will make them many more millions from this renewed association. You folks at Amazon are going to look like complete fools for severing your relationship with him and letting a smarter company take over.

So I repeat my advice: Write the check now and save everyone (including yourselves) the time and trouble of a trial you have no chance of winning. You’re welcome.