The memoirs of filmmaker Woody Allen, promised to international success, will ultimately not be published. Europe 1 traces the thread of the week when everything changed for the 84-year-old director, accused since 1992 by his adopted daughter of sexual abuse and already implicated in the speech liberation movement "#MeToo".

Attacked by critics, the Hachette group canceled Friday the publication of the memoirs of the famous New York director Woody Allen, accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was seven years old, which he has always denied. The book, supposed to retrace in detail the professional and personal life of the 84-year-old filmmaker, author of dozens of feature films including the legendary Manhattan and Annie Hall , was to be published on April 7 in the United States by a subsidiary of Hachette, Grand Central Publishing.

The Woody Allen case

Since 1992, Woody Allen has been accused of sexually assaulting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was seven years old. These accusations came back to the fore during the wave of the liberation of speech from the #MeToo movement. If the director has not been prosecuted, the "Allen" clan and the "Farrow" clan often get involved through the media.

Tuesday March 3: Ronan Farrow steps up

Dylan Farrow's brother Ronan Farrow learns that the information in his father's book has not been verified. "Hachette has not checked the contents of this book," he said. Ronan Farrow maintains that the publisher did not contact his sister Dylan to compare his version with that of his adoptive father, Woody Allen, which is, for him, "a crazy lack of professionalism".

Lack of ethics and lack of compassion: Ronan Farrow, who has long distanced himself from his father, denounces the attitude of the group. If Hachette publishes his father's memoirs, the journalist, Pullitzer Prize in 2018 for his book on the underside of the Weinstein affair, threatens to no longer work with the publishing house.

Wednesday March 5: a demonstration in front of the publishing house

Two days later, several dozen employees of a Hachette subsidiary in New York demonstrated outside the headquarters of the publishing house to protest against the publication of Woody Allen's memoirs. "We stand in solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow and victims of sexual assault," they explain.

75 plus employees of Hachette are standing in solidarity with @ronanfarrow, @realdylanfarrow and survivors of sexual assault and walked out of the Hachette offices today in protest of Woody Allen's memoir. # HachetteWalkout # LittleBrownWalkoutpic.twitter.com / wTNi3c7gy8

- Kendra Barkoff Lamy (@kabarkoff) March 5, 2020

Friday March 6: Hachette decides not to publish the Memoirs

"The decision to cancel Mr. Allen's book was difficult (...), we do not cancel books lightly," said Sophie Cottrell, spokesperson for Hachette Book, in an email to AFP. Group USA (HBG). "Over the past few days, HGB management has had long discussions with staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that maintaining publication was not feasible for HBG," she adds. , specifying that Hachette would return "all rights" purchased to the director.

Shortly after the publisher's decision was announced, the director's autobiography, titled About About Nothing , still appeared on the Amazon online store. It was labeled "best seller", which suggests that the site had received a large volume of pre-orders.

Worry on the one hand, recognition on the other

After having already greeted the Hachette employees on Thursday, Dylan Farrow showed them his "gratitude" on Friday. "For someone who has long felt alone with their story, yesterday reminds us that we can make a difference when people unite for what is right," she wrote on Twitter. . Her brother also posted a similar message. "I would like to thank all of the Hachette employees and writers who spoke and the company for listening," Ronan Farrow wrote in a tweet when the news was announced.

To all the employees of @HachetteUS, @littlebrown, and @GrandCentralPub who took a stand, I'm in awe and so very grateful. pic.twitter.com/Si4oXpudde

- Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) March 6, 2020

Others were less enthusiastic about the reprogramming of Woody Allen's book. Like Stephen King, who asked "who would be next". "Hachette's decision to drop Woody Allen makes me very uncomfortable. It's not him, I don't care about Mr. Allen"

>> Manuel Carcassone, French editor of Woody Allen's memoirs, will be the exclusive guest of Europe 1 at ten o'clock on Sunday March 8 in the Patrick Cohen show "It's arrived this week"