title: Xavier Woods

text: On October 21, 2007, it was reported that Creed had signed a contract with TNA. The signing was reported when Creed appeared on the radio show "Trash Talking Radio" on October 23 with Tommy Cairo and Sabian. His signing was also confirmed later at a NWA Anarchy show where Creed was presented with the contract by TNA Booking Director Bill Behrens. Following Bound For Glory, Creed was not seen on TNA television for months after Killings asked for and was later granted his release from the company.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On February 10, 2008, Creed wrestled in a dark match before Against All Odds. He teamed with Sonjay Dutt defeating The Rock 'n Rave Infection. On the March 13 episode of "Impact!", a promo video with the words "prepare to face the consequences" showed Creed training and announced that he would make his return at the Lockdown pay-per-view on April 13. The following week, the return date was changed to April 10. On the April 10 episode of "Impact!", Creed made his in-ring return and defeated Jimmy Rave of The Rock 'n Rave Infection, thus qualifying for the Xscape match at Lockdown. During the match, Creed eliminated Shark Boy, but was later eliminated by Curry Man. Creed later wrestled in the first ever TerrorDome match at Sacrifice, which was won by Kaz.


title: Xavier Woods

text: At Hard Justice, Creed faced Petey Williams for the X Division Championship, but lost after interference from Sheik Abdul Bashir. On the September 4, 2008, episode of "Impact!", he won a number one contenders match against Bashir for the right to face Williams again at No Surrender for the X Division Title. However, the match was later changed to a triple threat after Bashir repeatedly attacked Creed and ultimately, Bashir won the match and the X Division title. At Bound for Glory IV on October 12, 2008, Creed was defeated by Bashir in another match for the X Division Championship.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the October 30, 2008, episode of "Impact!", Creed, along with Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams, Eric Young, ODB and The Motor City Machineguns formed a faction of younger wrestlers, known as The Frontline, to oppose The Main Event Mafia.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On January 8, 2009 (taped December 16, 2008), fellow Frontline member Lethal chose Creed to cash in his Feast or Fired briefcase with, and the pair won the World Tag Team Championship from the champions Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm). Creed and Lethal went on to be named Lethal Consequences, a combination of their respective names. Beer Money, Inc. regained their titles in a three-way match at Genesis. at Against All Odds, Creed and Lethal got their rematch but failed to regain the titles.


title: Xavier Woods

text: For the next few months, Creed and Lethal teamed with the Motor City Machineguns to try and unmask Suicide. At Against All Odds, Lethal Consequences lost to Beer Money, Inc., At Destination X, Creed competed in an Ultimate X match for the TNA X Division Championship which was won by Suicide. At Lockdown, Creed competed in a Xscape match for the X Division Championship which was won by Suicide. At Sacrifice, Lethal Consequences and Eric Young defeated The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) and Sheik Abdul Bashir. At Slammiversary, Creed competed in a King of the Mountain match for the X Division Championship which was won by Suicide. At Hard Justice, Creed competed in a Steel Asylum match which was won by Daniels.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the October 1, 2009, episode of "Impact!", Creed and Lethal were part of a 5-man ladder match for a future X Division Title match. During the match, Amazing Red, who ended up winning the match, performed a hurricanrana driver, which caused Creed to projectile vomit after his head hit the mat.


title: Xavier Woods

text: At Bound for Glory, Lethal Consequences (Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal) lost to The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) on the preshow. at Final Resolution, Creed competed in a Feast or Fired match but failed to win the match.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On April 4, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced Watson, under his Consequences Creed ring name, as a participant in the first Super J Tag Tournament. On May 8, Creed and his partner Kota Ibushi were eliminated from the tournament in the first round by the team of Gedo and Kushida. Creed returned to New Japan on June 28, 2010, teaming up with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in the J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament. After defeating Tamon Honda, Kentaro Shiga and Makoto Hashi in the opening round, the trio was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by Shinsuke Nakamura, Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On July 10, Creed defeated Brian Milonas, U-Gene and Tommaso Ciampa to win East Coast Wrestling Association's 2010 Super 8 Tournament.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On July 22, 2010, it was announced that Watson had signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In a 2016 interview, Watson revealed that he got hired by showing up unannounced to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), a developmental territory of WWE, to apply for a job as wrestler; his future New Day partner Kofi Kingston, who had coincidentally met him on the day Watson had similarly showed up in DSW in 2007, happened to be in the room yet again when Watson entered. WWE had originally wanted to sign Watson full-time, but as he had six months left before finishing college, he turned down the offer; instead, they agreed to let him work part-time until he graduated from college, and gave him a full-time contract afterwards.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Watson, using his real name, made his debut for FCW on July 29, 2010, in a tag team match, where he and Percy Watson were defeated by Brodus Clay and Donny Marlow. Following his debut, he was then added to FCW's official website under the name Xavier Woods. In October, Woods began to team up with Wes Brisco and they took part in a tag team turmoil match on October 14, where they defeated three other teams. On November 4, Woods and Brisco defeated Johnny Curtis and Derrick Bateman to become the Florida Tag Team Champions. On December 1, Woods and Brisco vacated the Tag Team Championship after Brisco was sidelined with an injury. With Brisco sidelined with an injury, Woods teamed up with Marcus Owens to take on Damien Sandow and Titus O'Neil for the vacant Florida Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. Following this, Woods began performing as a singles competitor throughout 2011 and 2012, though without much success.


title: Xavier Woods

text: After WWE rebranded its developmental territory, FCW, into NXT, Woods made his televised debut on the October 31, 2012, episode of "NXT" with a loss to Leo Kruger. While picking up wins on NXT over the likes of El Local and Jake Carter, Woods began using the gimmick of a fanboy of 1990s popular culture that saw him implement his legitimate fandom of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", "Dragon Ball Z", and other 1990s pop culture into his matches and attire. He stopped using this gimmick once he was called up to WWE's main roster.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the November 18, 2013, episode of "Raw", Woods made his main roster debut as he teamed with fellow TNA alumnus and former tag-team partner R-Truth to defeat 3MB (Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal). The following week on "Raw", Woods defeated Heath Slater in his singles debut match while being accompanied by R-Truth and The Funkadactyls (Naomi and Cameron). On the November 29 episode of "SmackDown", Woods began a feud with Brodus Clay, after Clay took offense to Woods using his entrance music and The Funkdactyls as his valets. Later that night, Woods suffered his first loss when he and R-Truth lost to Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai). On the December 2 episode of "Raw", Woods and Truth defeated Tons of Funk in a rematch. On the December 9 episode of "Raw", Woods lost to Clay. On the December 11 episode of "Main Event", Woods and Truth defeated Tons of Funk to end the feud.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On April 6, 2014, Woods made his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania XXX, where he competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but failed to win the match. Woods and Truth then began a feud with the debuting Alexander Rusev, and were defeated by him in singles encounters. At Extreme Rules, Woods and Truth was defeated by Rusev in a handicap match. After that loss, Woods and Truth's team quietly disbanded.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the July 21 episode of "Raw", after Big E and Kofi Kingston suffered another loss as a team in a recent string of defeats, Woods came down to address them. He went on to state that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands" and that now is "their time" and offered to form a stable. The duo accepted Woods' offer, and on the next day's "Main Event", Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. On the July 29 episode of "Main Event", Woods filled a commentary role while he and his group observed a match wrestled by the WWE Tag Team Champions, The Usos. The trio then temporarily separated as on the August 8 episode of "SmackDown", both Big E and Kingston reverted to wrestling singles matches with no sign or mention of the other two members of the group. Woods also joined the broadcast team alongside Rich Brennan on August 28 episode of "Superstars". Despite being disbanded on WWE television; Woods, Big E, and Kingston continued their alliance at house shows. On the September 26 episode of "SmackDown", Woods competed in an Intercontinental Championship No. 1 contender battle royal, which was won by Cesaro.


title: Xavier Woods

text: From the November 3 episode of "Raw", WWE began airing vignettes for Woods, Big E, and Kingston, with the stable billed as The New Day, and presented as overly-positive babyface characters. The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of "SmackDown" in a winning effort against Curtis Axel, Heath Slater, and Titus O'Neil. They started a brief feud with Gold and Stardust, which Kingston and Big E defeated Gold and Stardust at the pre-show on December 14. At WrestleMania 31, Woods competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, where he was eliminated by eventual winner, Big Show.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the April 6, 2015, episode of "Raw", The New Day turned heel, after fans responded negatively to the group. During this time, Woods especially would trash-talk with their opponents and the crowd during matches. On the April 20 episode of "Raw", The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons via countout to become the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship, after Woods held onto Sin Cara's feet to prevent him from re-entering the ring. At Extreme Rules, Big E and Kingston defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro to win the WWE Tag Team Championship, after a distraction from Woods. Woods was then given a share of the title and the trio defended the titles under the Freebird Rule. Big E and Kingston retained titles against Kidd and Cesaro on "SmackDown" and at Payback, with Woods interfering in both matches. At Elimination Chamber, The New Day retained the title in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where all three members were allowed to compete. At Money in the Bank, Woods and Big E lost the titles to The Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young), but regain the titles at SummerSlam for the second time. The next night on "Raw", The New Day were attacked by returning The Dudley Boyz, which ended with Woods being put through a table with a 3D. The New Day retained the titles against The Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions and Live from Madison Square Garden events by disqualification, and at Hell in a Cell by pinfall. The New Day retained the championship at in a triple threat tag team ladder match against The Lucha Dragons and The Usos. They retained their title against The Usos at Royal Rumble.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Despite portraying heels, New Day's strong in-ring performances and entertaining segments garnered positive reactions from critics and live audiences and the trio turned face after mocking The League of Nations (Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, King Barrett, and Rusev), as the crowd was starting to get behind them. The New Day retained the titles at Roadblock, after defeating Sheamus and King Barrett, but lost against them at WrestleMania 32 in a six-man tag team match. The New Day then retained their championship at Extreme Rules against The Vaudevillains and at the Money in the Bank against The Vaudevillains, Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in a fatal four-way tag team match. On July 19, Woods, along with his fellow The New Day teammates, was drafted to Raw brand as part of WWE draft. On July 22, The New Day became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, breaking the record of 478 days previously set by Demolition. After "SmackDown" established the SmackDown Tag Team Championship after the brand split, the titles held by The New Day were renamed the Raw Tag Team Championship. They retained the titles against Gallows and Anderson at SummerSlam and Clash of Champions. On the October 31 episode of "Raw", The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the Survivor Series tag team elimination match at Survivor Series. At the event, they were the first team eliminated although Team Raw still went on to win the match. On the November 21 episode of "Raw", The New Day successfully retained their titles against Team Raw's sole survivors, Cesaro and Sheamus. At , The New Day lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to Cesaro and Sheamus, ending their record-breaking championship reign at 483 days. The New Day then received a rematch, but failed to reclaim the championships. The New Day would then go on to host WrestleMania 33.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On April 11, 2017, The New Day were moved to the SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. They started a feud with The Usos, facing them for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at Money in the Bank, which they won by countout. At Battleground, Woods and Kingston defeated The Usos to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for the first time, but lost the titles back to The Usos at SummerSlam. On the September 12 episode of "SmackDown Live", The New Day defeated The Usos to win back the championship in a Sin City Street Fight, but lost them again to The Usos at Hell in a Cell. The New Day failed to regain the titles from The Usos at Clash of Champions in a fatal four-way tag team match also involving the team of Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, and Aiden English and Rusev. On the December 26 episode of "SmackDown Live", general manager Daniel Bryan revealed a tournament for the vacant United States Championship. In this tournament, Woods defeated Aiden English in the first round, but lost to Jinder Mahal in the semi-finals. On January 28, 2018, Woods entered the Royal Rumble match at number 12, but was eliminated by Mahal. At Fastlane, The New Day faced The Usos for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship, but went to a no contest after inference from The Bludgeon Brothers. At WrestleMania 34, The New Day would face The Usos and The Bludgeon Brothers in a triple threat tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but failed to capture the titles. On July 21, general manager Paige scheduled a tag team title tournament, with the winning team earning the right to challenge The Bludgeon Brothers for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam. The New Day defeated SAnitY in the semi-finals and Cesaro and Sheamus in the finals. At SummerSlam, The New Day won the match by disqualification, meaning The Bludgeon Brothers retained their titles, but two days later on "SmackDown Live", The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a no disqualification match to capture the titles for a third time. On October 16, Woods and Big E lost the titles against The Bar on "SmackDown 1000".


title: Xavier Woods

text: On January 27, 2019, at Royal Rumble, Woods entered the Royal Rumble match, but was eliminated by Drew McIntyre. In the lead-up to WrestleMania 35, Woods's teammate Kofi Kingston was attempting to earn a shot at the WWE Championship and after many attempts, Mr. McMahon granted him the title shot after Woods and Big E defeated Gallows and Anderson, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura, The Bar, The Usos, and Daniel Bryan and Rowan in a tag team gauntlet match. Following WrestleMania, Woods and Big E later earned another SmackDown Tag Team Championship opportunity at Extreme Rules. At the event, Woods and Big E defeated Daniel Bryan and Rowan, and Heavy Machinery to win the titles. Woods and Big E lost the titles to The Revival at Clash of Champions. During a WWE live event on October 21, Woods suffered a legitimate achilles injury and it was reported that the injury would sideline him for six months to a year.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the October 9, 2020, episode of "SmackDown", Woods returned from injury, where he teamed with Kingston to defeat Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, winning their seventh SmackDown Tag Team Championship. After the match, as part of the 2020 Draft, Kingston and Woods were drafted to the Raw brand, splitting them from Big E, who remained on the SmackDown brand. On the October 12 episode of "Raw", New Day would exchange tag team titles with Raw Tag Team Championship holders The Street Profits, who were drafted to SmackDown. This would mark Kingston and Woods' third reign with the Raw titles as a team (fifth for Kingston individually), New Day's 10th tag team championship reign in WWE as a team, and Woods' 10th tag team championship reign individually. On December 20, at , Kingston and Woods lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin). Woods and Kingston then would win back the titles from Alexander and Benjamin on March 15, 2021, during the live broadcast of "Raw", marking Woods' fourth reign with the Raw Tag Titles, and overall 11th Tag Team Championship reign in WWE. They would hold the championship until WrestleMania 37 where they lost the titles to AJ Styles and Omos.


title: Xavier Woods

text: As part of the 2021 Draft, Woods – along with his tag team partner Kingston – were drafted to the SmackDown brand, which took effect on October 22. Before that, Woods entered the 2021 King of the Ring tournament, representing Raw, where he defeated Ricochet in the first round and Jinder Mahal in the semi-finals. At "Crown Jewel" on October 21, Woods defeated SmackDown's Finn Bálor in the final to win the tournament and become "King of the Ring"; his first individual accolade in WWE. On the following episode of "SmackDown", with the team now officially members of the SmackDown brand, The New Day had a coronation for Woods. Kingston introduced Woods and adorned him with a cape, crown, and scepter, and Woods' ring name was changed to King Woods. On the January 14, 2022 edition of "SmackDown", Woods was diagnosed with a torn plantaris, rendering him unable to compete for 4–6 weeks.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On the March 25, 2022 edition of SmackDown, Woods made his return reverting to Xavier Woods defeating Ridge Holland in a match. Kingston & Woods then challenged Sheamus & Ridge Holland to a match at WrestleMania, but lost.


title: Xavier Woods

text: On December 10, at Deadline, Woods and Kingston defeated Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) to win NXT Tag Team Championship for the first time and also the third WWE Tag Team Triple Crown winners by winning NXT Tag Titles.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Woods's wrestling persona is playable in eight video games: TNA Impact!: Cross the Line as Consequences Creed, and in WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20, WWE 2K22, and as a crossover character in Brawlhalla, as Xavier Woods. In addition, Woods appears in Super Bomberman R and as a costume in Fall Guys. Under the Xavier Woods moniker, he played Mortal Kombat's Raiden in NetherRealm Studio's mobile game, WWE Immortals.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Woods's life was spotlighted, along with Adam Rose and Corey Graves, on ESPN's "" special on WWE titled "Behind the Curtain", which aired May 5, 2015. He made an appearance in fellow wrestler Emma's short-lived YouTube cooking channel Taste of Tenille in 2015. Woods was featured playing tambourine and trombone on the Postmodern Jukebox cover of "What is Love" music video.


title: Xavier Woods

text: In 2017, Woods made his voice acting debut as the character Vincent Mensah in the PlayStation 4 video game "". He also published "The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It" with fellow New Day members Big E and Kofi Kingston.


title: Xavier Woods

text: In 2015, Woods, under his Austin Creed moniker, started a YouTube channel called "UpUpDownDown", where he invites fellow WWE performers, gaming personalities, friends, and guests to play games. In August 2018, it won a Guinness World Record for Most Subscribed-to Celebrity Video Gaming Channel, with 1.6 million subscribers.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Woods is a recurring cast member of Penny Arcade's live Dungeons & Dragons campaign Acquisitions Incorporated as of 2019. He performs at various PAX conventions playing the role of Bobby Zimmeruski, a Goliath Barbarian with an obsession for violence and a deep love of cheese.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Watson, along with Big E and Kofi Kingston, appeared in an episode of "Adam Ruins Everything" where they did a rendition of their catchphrase during a segment about Mount Rushmore.


title: Xavier Woods

text: In November 2020, Woods, alongside fellow The New Day members Big E and Kingston, was added as playable DLC characters in the video game "Gears 5", sporting custom armour in the colors of The New Day's ring attires; the three recorded dialogue specifically for the game.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Watson has two bachelor's degrees in psychology and philosophy, a master's in psychology, and as of 2015, announced that he is currently working towards earning a PhD in educational psychology from Capella University.


title: Xavier Woods

text: Watson is an avid fan of video games. He has a tattoo of the Wingcrest from "The Legend of Zelda" series on his left forearm. He also has a Twitch account under the username AustinCreed. He won the annual WWE 2K tournament in 2015.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Chanel Iman Robinson (formerly Shepard) (born December 1, 1990) is an American model best known for her work as a Victoria's Secret Angel. "Vogue Paris" declared her as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Iman was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1990. She grew up in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is of mixed heritage being half African American and half Korean. Her father is African American.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Iman started modeling with Ford Models at the age of 12 as a child model in Los Angeles, California. She flew to New York in 2006 and won third place in Ford's Supermodel of the World contest. Shortly after, she signed on with the agency. She has appeared in editions for "Allure", Dubai, American, and Ukrainian "Harpers Bazaar", "V", "i-D", "Pop", Italian, British, and Indonesian "Elle", Italian "Vanity Fair", and several international "Vogues". In February and July 2007, Iman appeared on the cover of "Teen Vogue", with Karlie Kloss and Ali Michael, photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, then in November 2009 she appeared on the cover again, this time with Jourdan Dunn. Iman's other covers include American, British, and Italian "Elle", American and French "L'Officiel", "i-D", Dubai and Ukrainian "Harper's Bazaar", "Lula", Korean, Teen, and American "Vogue".


title: Chanel Iman

text: She has walked the runways for Burberry, Tom Ford, Gucci, Balenciaga, Max Mara, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, DKNY, Moschino, Tommy Hilfiger, Jason Wu, Dior, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Kenzo, Hermés, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Roberto Cavalli, Marc Jacobs, DSquared2, John Galliano, and Bottega Veneta.


title: Chanel Iman

text: She has appeared in advertising campaigns for Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Bottega Veneta, DSquared2, Dennis Basso, Swarovski, XOXO, Benetton, J. Crew, Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, GAP, Express, Mizani, and Victoria's Secret.


title: Chanel Iman

text: She has walked in the 2009,2010 and 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In 2010, she became a Victoria's Secret Angel and was used in several of the company's campaigns.


title: Chanel Iman

text: In October 2007, Iman appeared with her mother on an episode of the "Tyra Banks Show". On March 21, 2009, she appeared as a correspondent in MTV's brief revival of "House of Style" with Bar Refaeli.


title: Chanel Iman

text: On September 9, 2009, Iman appeared as a guest judge on the two-hour season premiere of "America's Next Top Model, Cycle 13" and also appeared on an episode of "America's Next Top Model, Cycle 23" posing with the contestants of that cycle.


title: Chanel Iman

text: She also made an appearance on a January 2016 episode of Spike's "Lip Sync Battle", as part of Olivia Munn's performance of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood".


title: Chanel Iman

text: Iman appeared in the 2015 film "Dope" which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In 2017, Iman appeared in the Crackle original movie, "Mad Families".


title: Chanel Iman

text: Early in 2010, Iman opened a clothing boutique in Culver City, California called The Red Bag with the help of her mother.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Iman appeared in Beyoncé's music video for "Yonce". She also appeared in singer Usher's music video for "Dive" and The Weeknd's music video for "Can't Feel My Face". In 2012, she attended the Met Ball with fashion designer Tom Ford.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Intel released a Kinect video game on Xbox Live Arcade starring Chanel Iman, Chris Evans and Redfoo of LMFAO. Iman signed a contract with Utah-based electronics company Skullcandy. For 2012, Iman was Sunglass Hut's summer ambassador along with Jourdan Dunn and Joan Smalls.


title: Chanel Iman

text: Iman was a model for Amazon Fashion's 2012 holiday campaign. In 2015, she appeared in Rick Famuyiwa’s "Dope".


title: Chanel Iman

text: In 2011, Iman traveled to East Africa on a work trip where she became one of a handful of celebrities attached to USAID and Ad Council's FWD campaign, an awareness initiative tied to that year's drought in East Africa. She joined Uma Thurman, Geena Davis and Josh Hartnett in TV and internet ads to "forward the facts" about the crisis. As an advocate for education, Chanel is currently working on setting up primary schools in impoverished rural areas in Tanzania and Uganda. Her immense passion for charity work led her to sponsor several young girls in Kenya as well, in which she contributes funds for their daily necessities and academic tuition.


title: Chanel Iman

text: In May 2011, editor-in-chief of American "Vogue", Anna Wintour, chose Iman to co-host her Runway to Win fundraising event in Chicago. In conjunction with the event, Iman designed a backpack to raise money for President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign.


title: Chanel Iman

text: In early 2013, Iman began dating rapper A$AP Rocky. In April 2014, they were reported to be engaged, however they separated in June 2014. In August 2015, it was confirmed that Iman was dating Lakers basketball player Jordan Clarkson, although they ended the relationship shortly after.


title: Chanel Iman

text: On December 2, 2017, Iman announced her engagement to New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard. The couple married on March 3, 2018, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The couple have two daughters: Cali born on August 10, 2018 and Cassie born on December 17, 2019. The couple announced they were getting divorced in January 2022.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009 and also to grant permanent normal trade relations status to Russia.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The Global Magnitsky Act of 2016 authorizes the U.S. government to sanction foreign government officials worldwide who are deemed to be human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In 2009, Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison after investigating a $230 million fraud involving Russian tax officials. Magnitsky was accused of committing the fraud himself by Russian officials and detained. While in prison, Magnitsky developed gall stones, pancreatitis and calculous cholecystitis and was not given medical treatment for months. After almost a year of imprisonment, he was beaten to death while in custody.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Magnitsky's friend Bill Browder, a prominent American-born businessman working extensively in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, publicized the case and lobbied American officials to pass legislation sanctioning Russian individuals involved in corruption. Browder brought the case to Senators Benjamin Cardin and John McCain, who proceeded to propose legislation.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In June 2012, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported to the House a bill called the "Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012" (H.R. 4405). The main intention of the law was to punish Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky by prohibiting their entrance to the United States and their use of its banking system. The legislation was taken up by a Senate panel the next week, sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin, and cited in a broader review of the mounting tensions in the international relationship. Browder later wrote that the Magnitsky Act found quick bipartisan support because the corruption exposed by Magnitsky was blatant beyond dispute, and "[t]here wasn't a pro-Russian-torture-and-murder lobby to oppose it."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The Obama administration fought the bill until Congress signaled the 2012 Jackson–Vanick bill would not be repealed unless the Magnitsky Act passed. In November 2012, provisions of the Magnitsky bill were attached to a House bill (H.R. 6156) normalizing trade with Russia (i.e., repealing the Jackson–Vanik amendment) and Moldova. On December 6, 2012, the U.S. Senate passed the House version of the law, 92–4. The law was signed by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In April 2013, the Obama administration made public a list of 18 individuals affected by the Act. The people included on the list were:


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On January 9, 2017, under the "Magnitsky Act", the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control updated its Specially Designated Nationals List and blacklisted Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, Andrei K. Lugovoi, Dmitri V. Kovtun, Stanislav Gordievsky, and Gennady Plaksin, which froze any of their assets held by American financial institutions or transactions with those institutions and banned their traveling to the United States.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In response to the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, the Russian government denied Americans adoption of Russian children; issued its own list of American officials prohibited from entering Russia, just as the US had previously done to some Russian officials; and convicted Magnitsky as guilty after his death. In addition, the Russian government reportedly lobbied against the legislation acting through a public relations company led by Kenneth Duberstein. Later, a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya was hired to lobby against the Magnitsky Act in the US. She set up a meeting with future-president Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., purportedly to discuss the matter.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On December 19, 2012, the State Duma voted 400 to 4 to ban the international adoption of Russian children into the United States. The bill was unofficially named after Dmitri Yakovlev (Chase Harrison), a Russian toddler who died of heat stroke in 2008 when his adoptive American father forgot he was in the back seat of his SUV. The next year, 2013, two additional laws were proposed: one was to prevent US citizens from working with political NGOs in Russia, and a second law, eventually abandoned, prevented any foreigner from speaking on state television if they discredited the state.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On April 13, 2013, Russia released a list banning 18 Americans from entering Russia for alleged human rights violations, in a response to the Magnitsky list.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The Russian lawmakers also banned several U.S. officials involved in the prosecution and trial of Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko, both serving prison time in the United States:


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Australian expatriate jurist Geoffrey Robertson, who had been representing some of the Magnitsky campaigners, described the Act as "one of the most important new developments in human rights." He added that it provides "a way of getting at the Auschwitz train drivers, the apparatchiks, the people who make a little bit of money from human rights abuses and generally keep under the radar."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fedorov argued that the real purpose of the Magnitsky bill was to manipulate key figures in big business and government, with the aim of pro-American policy in the Russian Federation.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In 2018, the British parliament passed a so-called ‘Magnitsky amendment’ to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act to give the government the power to impose sanctions on people who commit gross human rights violations.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Bill Van Auken of "World Socialist Web Site" condemned the United States for what he described as invoking human rights as a cover for realpolitik in the Magnitsky Act, stating that Washington DC officials had supported "far greater crimes, [such] as when Boris Yeltsin in 1993 ordered bombardment of the Russian White House, the seat of the country’s parliament, killing 62 people".


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The controversial 2016 documentary "The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes" presents a falsified view of Magnitsky, asserting that "Magnitsky was not beaten while in police custody, and that he did not make any specific allegations against individuals in his testimony to Russian authorities". In its review of the controversial documentary, The Guardian includes views of those sceptical of the documentary such as Petras Auštrevičius, Lithuanian member of the European Parliament who also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee, who said the push to screen the film was one of several moves by the Russian authorities to weaken western confidence in its policy line and secure a review of European Union sanctions against Russia later that year.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In a July 2017 interview on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS", Bill Browder discussed the Magnitsky Act and topics such as the reasons why Putin is directly threatened by it, the money given by Russia government to more than 10,000 Russian human-rights abusers, the June 2016 Trump campaign–Russian meeting, and the power and influence of Russian money in Washington, D.C. at the time.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Liberal Russian dissidents Vladimir V. Kara-Murza and Boris Nemtsov both approved of the act, calling it "pro-Russian."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: President Donald Trump gave a memorandum to Congress on the implementation of the Act on April 21, 2017.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In May 2017, US authorities settled a case against Prevezon Holding, one of the companies used for laundering the money exfiltrated from Russia as result of the fraud discovered by Sergey Magnitsky. The settlement dismissed the case, and the real-estate company agreed to pay a $5.8 million fine. Also in May 2017, an investigation was started on the £6.6m allegedly transferred from the fraud scheme into a banking firm in the UK.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On September 8, 2017, President Trump, in a memorandum, delegated authority to alter the financial sanctions in this act to the Secretary of the Treasury, and the issue of visas to the Secretary of State.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In 2016, Congress enacted the "Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act," which allows the U.S. government to sanction foreign government officials implicated in human rights abuses anywhere in the world.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Initially introduced as separate legislation by Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) in the Senate and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) in the House, the Global Magnitsky Act was ultimately incorporated as Title XII, Subtitle F (sections 1261 through 1265) of the omnibus National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which became law on December 23, 2016, of the NDAA FY 2017.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The legal framework for the Global Magnitsky Sanctions consists of the following executive order, multiple public laws (statutes), and regulations:


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Effective 21 December 2017, US President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13818, the first implementation of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, under which the U.S. government imposed sanctions against 13 individuals described as "human rights abusers, kleptocrats, and corrupt actors," announced by US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. President Trump said that he was "declaring a national emergency with respect to serious human-rights abuse and corruption around the world." The sanctioned individuals included Yahya Jammeh, former president of The Gambia, and Roberto Jose Rivas Reyes, president of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council. An additional 39 affiliated companies and individuals were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).


title: Magnitsky Act

text: According to "The Economist", Dan Gertler, an "Israeli mining billionaire" and longtime close friend of Joseph Kabila, who was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for decades, was also listed in President Trump's EO Annex and placed on the OFAC financial sanctions list. All of Gertler's assets that were under U.S. jurisdiction were blocked. According to a February 2018 article in "The Economist", the sanctions statement said that Gertler had "amassed his fortune through hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals" in the DRC. Included in the Executive Order is the list of designated entities "affiliated with" Gertler:


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In June 2018, Félix Bautista, a member of the Senate of the Dominican Republic and five companies owned or controlled by him were sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Act due to his involvement in significant corruption. Bautista has reportedly engaged in bribery in relation to his position as a Senator, and is alleged to have engaged in corruption in Haiti, where he used his connections to win public works contracts to help rebuild Haiti following several natural disasters, including one case where his company was paid over $10 million for work not completed.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In July 2018, three Nicaraguans were added to the OFAC sanctions list. Nicaraguan National Police Commissioner Francisco Javier Diaz Madriz (Diaz) and Secretary of the Mayor's Office of Managua Fidel Antonio Moreno Briones (Moreno) were sanctioned for being responsible for, or the leaders of entities involved in, serious human rights abuse in Nicaragua. Additionally, OFAC designated Jose Francisco Lopez Centeno (Lopez), the Vice President of ALBA de Nicaragua (ALBANISA) and President of Petronic, for engaging in corrupt activities.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In August 2018, the Treasury Department sanctioned top Turkish government officials, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who were involved in the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. Daniel Glaser, the former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing under President Barack Obama, said: "It’s certainly the first time I can think of" the U.S. sanctioning a NATO ally. "I certainly regard it as a human rights violation to unlawfully detain somebody, so I think it falls within the scope of the Global Magnitsky Act."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In November 2018, the Treasury Department announced the imposition of Global Magnitsky Act sanctions against 17 Saudi Arabian officials "who targeted and brutally killed" Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who lived and worked in the United States.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On July 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a Chinese government entity (the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau) and four current or former government officials for serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The sanctions were imposed on the basis of serious human rights abuses which reportedly included mass arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious abuses targeting Uyghurs (the Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang) and other ethnic minorities in the region.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On July 31, 2020, the OFAC further sanctioned Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), Sun Jinlong, a former Political Commissar of the XPCC, and Peng Jiarui, the Deputy Party Secretary and Commander of the XPCC, for their connection to similar human rights abuses against the ethnic minorities in XUAR.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: The XPCC is a paramilitary organization in the XUAR subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), created to enhance internal control over the region. XPCC was used by XUAR CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo, who was subject to similar sanctions on July 9, 2020, to implement a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program targeting Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups. The sanction generally prohibits all transactions by U.S. persons or taking place within the United States involving any property or interests in property of the sanctioned entities. The sanctions are listed by the OFAC as part of "an ongoing effort to deter human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: Filipos Woldeyohannes, Chief of Staff of the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF), was sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act on August 23, 2021, for his command responsibility as head of the EDF, involved in war crimes and sexual violence in the Tigray War.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In Paraguay, Kassem Mohamad Hijazi, Khalil Ahmad Hijazi and Liz Paola Doldan, despachantes (dispatchers) operating in the tri-border area of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, and whose money laundering operation was estimated to have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars, were also sanctioned by the act.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On August 7, 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned 11 individuals "for undermining Hong Kong's autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: These sanctions were made pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13936, which was issued on July 14, 2020, by President Trump to declare a national emergency with respect to the situation in Hong Kong, where actions by China "fundamentally undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic processes."


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In September 2017, a group of NGOs and anti-corruption organizations identified 15 international cases where alleged crimes were committed. Individuals from countries, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mexico, Panama, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, were nominated for sanctions.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In December 2017, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain stated that,The Trump Administration has failed to take up cases presented regarding serious human rights abuses committed by Bahraini government officials. Ultimately, there were no individuals or entities from any Arab League member state designated in the Global Magnitsky Act’s first list of designees, despite the submission of eligible cases.In August 2018, Senator Marco Rubio and a bipartisan group of 16 other members of Congress urged the United States to impose sanctions under the "Global Magnitsky Act" against Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang. In December 2019, the "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act" was passed in the House of Representatives, which calls for the imposition of sanctions under the "Global Magnitsky Act". The 2019 annual report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China called for Congress to consider sanctions against Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act for crimes against humanity.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On April 7, 2020, Rep. Chris Smith, called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to form a task force "to identify and investigate" Chinese government officials for their role in allegedly silencing doctors and journalists who have spoken out about China's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, Smith suggested that the U.S. apply the Global Magnitsky Act to target specific Chinese officials involved in going after whistleblowers, without punishing the country as a whole.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On December 15, 2021, 18 United States senators co-signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, asking them to sanction the NSO Group under the Magnitsky Act, due to the Israeli firm's controversy regarding its Pegasus smartphone spyware product.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In March 2015, the parliament of Canada passed an initial motion towards passing such a law. Canada's Sergei Magnitsky Law"," officially the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, received royal assent and was passed into law on October 18, 2017. The Act is regulated by the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Regulations.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On November 29, 2018, Canada amended the Regulations to include 17 foreign nationals from Saudi Arabia, who were accused of being responsible for or complicit in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, particularly the torture and extrajudicial killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: In March 2019, the European Parliament passed a resolution 447–70 in favor of passing a "Magnitsky Act" for the European Union. In her September 2020 State of the European Union address, Ursula von der Leyen stated that one of the European Commission's goals was passing a European Magnitsky Act.


title: Magnitsky Act

text: On 6 July 2020, United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced the first sanctions under a law similar to the Global Magnitsky Act, where 47 individuals came under travel restrictions and asset freezes. The regulations were meant to give the government a power to impose sanctions on those involved in the worst human rights abuses around the world.


The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (also known as simply The Naked Gun) is a 1988 American crime comedy film directed by David Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Leslie Nielsen as the bumbling police lieutenant Frank Drebin. Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalbán, George Kennedy, and O. J. Simpson also star in supporting roles.


title: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

text: The film features fast-paced slapstick comedy, including many visual and verbal puns and gags. The film is based on the character portrayed by Nielsen in the television series "Police Squad!", and is also a continuation of the latter. The core creative team behind "Police Squad!" and the film series includes the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker as well as Pat Proft in varying combinations.


text: Released on December 2, 1988, "The Naked Gun" was a critical and commercial success, which led to two sequels: "" (1991) and "" (1994).


text: Police Squad Lieutenant Frank Drebin is on vacation in Beirut when he disrupts a conference of America's greatest enemies (Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, and Mikhail Gorbachev) who are trying to conceive a terrorist plan to humiliate the U.S. In Los Angeles, Officer Nordberg attempts to bust a heroin operation run by businessman Vincent Ludwig but is shot by Ludwig's henchmen. Drebin returns to L.A. and is briefed on the case before visiting Nordberg in the hospital. Nordberg provides cryptic clues, including a picture of Ludwig's ship on which the deal had been organized. Frank also learns that Nordberg's jacket tested positive for heroin.


text: Police Squad is put in charge of security for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Los Angeles, and Captain Ed Hocken tells Drebin that he has 24 hours to clear Nordberg before word gets out and detracts from the Queen's visit.


text: Drebin visits Ludwig to inquire about the ship and Ludwig learns that Nordberg is still alive. Ludwig asks his assistant Jane, who is unaware of Ludwig's criminal activities, to get close to Drebin and see what he knows. Jane provides Drebin with information he requested and the two begin falling in love. Ludwig meets with Pahpshmir, from the Beirut meeting, to discuss an assassination plot against the Queen. Ludwig agrees to do it for $20 million and explains that he will use a beeper that uses post-hypnotic suggestion to make anyone an unwitting assassin. Ludwig attempts to have Nordberg killed at the hospital by hypnotizing his doctor, but Drebin successfully protects Nordberg. The doctor is killed in a comical fashion before Drebin can interrogate him.


text: Drebin then breaks into Ludwig's office to search for evidence. He finds a note from Pahpshmir to Ludwig which confirms his suspicions, but accidentally starts a fire that destroys the note and the office. Drebin later confronts Ludwig with his allegations at a reception for the Queen's arrival. He misinterprets Ludwig's presentation of a musket to the Queen as an attack and tries to protect her, but only causes more of a problem and is fired from Police Squad. Jane finds out the plan will be executed at a baseball game at Anaheim Stadium and that one of the players will perform the act. She tells Drebin of the plan but he is forced to sneak into the game in diguise.


text: Police Squad arrives at the stadium and Drebin tells them about the plot. Drebin knocks the home plate umpire out and takes his place in order to frisk the players for weapons while they are at bat. Ludwig eventually activates his assassin, Reggie Jackson. Jane alerts Drebin, who chases after Jackson and tackles him, causing a bench-clearing brawl that allows Jackson to escape. Ludwig holds Jane at gunpoint and begins to leave the stadium while Jackson takes aim at the Queen. Drebin tries to incapacitate Jackson with a tranquilizer dart, but misses and hits a large woman on the upper deck. She falls over the railing and lands on Jackson, crushing him and saving the Queen's life.


text: Drebin follows Ludwig to the top of the stadium and shoots him with another dart. Ludwig falls over the side of the stadium and is struck by a passing bus, run over by a steamroller, and finally trampled by the USC marching band. Some of the band members inadvertently step on Ludwig's beeper, triggering Jane to attempt to kill Drebin. He breaks Jane's hypnosis by openly professing his feelings for her and giving her an engagement ring. Drebin is reinstated to Police Squad and a recovered Nordberg congratulates him. Unfortunately, Drebin accidentally pushes Nordberg's wheelchair down the stadium stairs and launches him onto the field.


text: Major League Baseball (MLB) player Jay Johnstone has a cameo role as do umpires Joe West, Doug Harvey, Hank Robinson, Ken Kaiser and Ron Luciano. Professional announcers Curt Gowdy, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver, Mel Allen, Dick Enberg, and Dick Vitale appear as play-by-play commentators. Dr. Joyce Brothers also appears in a cameo role as herself. John Houseman appears (uncredited) as a driving teacher.


text: The baseball matchup between the California Angels and Seattle Mariners was not originally planned. Being Wisconsin natives, the Zuckers and Abrahams made a request to MLB to allow them to use the Milwaukee Brewers as one of the teams, but was recommended the Mariners instead. Minnesota native Proft's attempt to make that team the Twins was rejected by the ballclub. The Mariners' opponent was supposed to have been the Los Angeles Dodgers who, despite its willingness to allow Dodger Stadium to be used for filming, refused to be mentioned in the film because of its objection to the bench-clearing brawl scene. Needing a home team based in Greater Los Angeles which was the film's setting, the writers successfully settled for the Angels.


text: Ricardo Montalbán was chosen by the producers to play the villain after being included on a list of names assembled by the people in charge of casting the film. The Zucker brothers had seen his performance in "."


text: Upon its initial release, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" received critical acclaim, and has since been regarded as one of the greatest comedy films of all time. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 86%, based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Naked Gun" is chock full of gags that are goofy, unapologetically crass, and ultimately hilarious." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three-and-a-half stars (of four), and said: "The movie is as funny, let it be said, as any comedy released this year ... You laugh, and then you laugh at yourself for laughing."


text: It was voted the 14th best comedy of all time in a Channel 4 poll. The film was selected by "The New York Times" as one of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made". It was named the 7th Funniest Comedy Ever on a poll by "Empire".


text: The film was released on December 2, 1988, and in its opening weekend, finished in first place at the box office in the United States and Canada, grossing $9.3 million. In its second weekend, it grossed $6.1 million, falling to second place behind the newly released "Twins" ($11.2 million).


text: The film went on to gross $78.8 million at the United States and Canada box office and $73.7 million overseas for a worldwide total of $152.4 million.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In August 1992, American filmmaker and actor Woody Allen was alleged by his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, then aged seven, of having sexually molested her in the home of her adoptive mother, actress Mia Farrow, in Bridgewater, Connecticut. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegation.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: When the allegation was made, Allen and Mia Farrow had been in a 12-year relationship and had three children together: two adopted, Dylan and Moses, and one biological, Satchel (now known as Ronan Farrow). The sexual abuse is alleged to have taken place eight months after Farrow learned that Allen had a sexual relationship with another of her adoptive daughters, Soon-Yi Previn, who married Allen in 1997; Previn was a first-year undergraduate and 21 years old when Farrow eventually found out about the relationship. Allen alleged that the relationship prompted Farrow to concoct the molestation allegation as an act of vengeance. The Connecticut State's Attorney investigated the allegation but did not press charges. The Connecticut State Police referred Dylan to the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of Yale–New Haven Hospital, which concluded that Allen had not sexually abused Dylan and the allegation was likely coached or influenced by Mia Farrow. The New York Department of Social Services found "no credible evidence" to support the allegation.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In response to the allegation, Allen sued Farrow for sole custody of Dylan, Satchel, and Moses. He lost the case in June 1993, though the judge agreed that the allegation of sexual abuse had not been proven. Visitations with Dylan were suspended for six months until she recovered from what she had suffered during the initial custody case, while Allen was given limited, supervised visitation with Satchel, and Moses, a teenager, was allowed to decide for himself. The decision was upheld on appeal in 1994 and 1995.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Dylan has repeated the allegation several times as an adult, although with modifications of Mia's 1992 narrative. Her first public comment was in an interview with Maureen Orth for "Vanity Fair" in 2013, followed by an open letter in the "New York Times" in 2014 and a "Los Angeles Times" op-ed in December 2017. Allen has also spoken publicly about the allegation, in a "New York Times" op-ed and in 2018 in a statement to CBS News, each time denying it. Mia is accused of child abuse by two of her children, Moses and Soon-Yi, who also accuse her of false allegations and of "brainwashing" Dylan. In a 2018 letter, Moses, who felt in charge of carefully watching Dylan the afternoon she was allegedly molested and who was 14 at the time, explains in detail why he believes the allegation is false and describes his forced support of Mia as the biggest mistake of his life. He tweeted, "So many times I saw my mother try to convince her that she was abused—and it has worked."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Woody Allen and Mia Farrow began a 12-year relationship in 1980, during which Farrow starred in 13 of his films. They maintained separate apartments in Manhattan throughout the relationship—Farrow on Central Park West and Allen on Fifth Avenue—and did not marry; they had both been married twice before.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: When the relationship began, Farrow had seven children: three biological sons from her marriage to composer André Previn; three adopted girls (two Vietnamese and one Korean, Soon-Yi Previn); and one adopted Korean boy, Moses. In July 1985 she adopted Dylan Farrow from Texas. Allen was not involved in the adoption, but when Dylan arrived he assumed a parental role with her and began spending more time in Farrow's home. He and Farrow went to Europe several times with the Farrow–Previn children between 1987 and 1989, although the judicial investigation concluded that "he remained aloof from Ms. Farrow's other children except for Moses, to whom he was cordial."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In December 1987 Farrow gave birth to Allen's biological son, Satchel (later known as Ronan Farrow). Farrow wanted to adopt another child in 1991; Allen said he would not take "a lousy attitude toward it" so long as she agreed to his adoption of Dylan and Moses, and in October that year she adopted another Vietnamese child. Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses was finalized on December 17, 1991.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: According to her testimony during the custody trial, Farrow became concerned about Allen's behavior toward Dylan in 1987–88. She reportedly told Allen that he was giving Dylan too much attention and failing to give her "breathing room". Allen had allegedly read to Dylan while in his underwear, allowed her to suck his thumb, and would sit on her bed in the morning waiting for her to wake up. On one occasion, Dylan allegedly locked herself in the bathroom for four hours when Allen arrived; he had an employee pick the lock with a coat hanger. Farrow later testified that she found Allen's relationship with Dylan at this time "relentless and overpowering", with "a wooing quality"; but in 1990 she changed her will so that in the event of her death Allen would have custody of her minor children (Dylan, Satchel and Moses). Furthermore, in 1991, she made an affidavit to the judge promoting Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses, praising especially Allen's qualities as Dylan's father: "Mr. Allen is a loving, caring, attentive parent to Dylan and she can only benefit from having him as an adoptive father".


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Farrow told her therapist that she feared Allen "would abuse Satchel" and that she worried that Allen had a sexual relationship "with another man". The family psychologist, Dr. Susan Coates, witnessed some of Allen's behavior and testified during the custody trial in 1993 that she saw it not as sexual but as "inappropriately intense because it excluded everybody else". Allen said later that he had paid Dylan extra attention to compensate for the time Farrow was spending with the newborn Satchel. According to Maureen Orth, Allen agreed in 1990 to discuss the issue in therapy sessions; but at the trial Coates said that Allen was not in therapy with her and that both parents were part of the children's therapy. Allen wanted to improve as a father, but was not in therapy for inappropriate behavior with Dylan or for any other problems.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In 1991 Allen began a romantic relationship with Soon-Yi Previn. According to Allen, it began in late December 1991. In August 1992 Farrow told her lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, that Soon-Yi had told her that the relationship between Allen and Soon-Yi had begun on December 1, 1991. Later Farrow alleged it began while Previn was in her final year of high school, which ended in June 1991. She also alleged that Dylan saw Allen and Previn on a bed together in the summer or autumn of 1991. The appeal court found that the sexual relationship between Allen and Soon-Yi began in December 1991.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: One point of contention has been how old Previn was at the time. When Farrow and André Previn adopted Soon-Yi from Seoul in 1977, the Seoul family court gave her a legal birth document with a presumptive birth date of October 8, 1970; she had been abandoned and was living in that city's St. Paul's Orphanage. According to Farrow, the family regarded her date of birth as October 8, 1972, although the first reaction of the nanny Kristi Groteke, when in May 1992 Farrow told her that Allen had had a relationship with Soon-Yi, was to remember that she was 21. The timing of the relationship became an issue in part because Farrow unsuccessfully attempted to have Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses voided after the molestation allegation, on the grounds that his relationship with Soon-Yi had begun before the adoptions were finalized on December 17, 1991.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: During her final year of high school, Soon-Yi told Allen that she wanted to be a model; he advised her how to dress and arranged for professional photographs to be taken. She reportedly asked if she could accompany him to a basketball game, and after attending several together, they became closer. Their relationship came to light on January 13, 1992, when Farrow found nude Polaroid photographs of Soon-Yi on the mantel in Allen's home. Soon-Yi was then in her first year at Drew University in New Jersey. Allen, then 56, told Farrow that he had taken the photographs the day before, and that he and Soon-Yi had first had sex in the last week of December 1991. Allen told the custody trial in 1993 that he regarded the images as erotic, but not pornographic; the appellate court said that it did not "share Mr. Allen's characterization" of the photographs.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Although the discovery shocked the family, Farrow did not stop Allen from visiting her home, and she completed her work on "Husbands and Wives" (1992), the last film of his in which she appeared. According to Farrow, Allen said his relationship with Soon-Yi was over; she alleged that Allen asked her to issue a joint press release, in response to rumors about the relationship, in which she would confirm there was none between Allen and Soon-Yi, but she refused to do so. Farrow was hurt and angry, but nevertheless adopted two more children that month: Tam, a blind Vietnamese girl, and Isaiah Justus, an African-American baby boy.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Allen and Soon-Yi remained in contact; in July 1992 she lost her job as a summer camp counselor in Maine after spending too much time on the telephone with a "Mr. Simon", who turned out to be Allen. Allen says that when he visited Connecticut to celebrate Dylan's birthday, Farrow left a note on a door in which she called him a "child molester". On August 1, 1992, according to Coates' testimony, Farrow telephoned Coates to say she had learned that Soon-Yi and Allen were still in a relationship; Farrow was distressed and told Coates that, just a week earlier, she and Allen had talked about getting married. "Ms. Farrow described Mr. Allen as 'satanic and evil'", Coates said, adding that Farrow pleaded with her to "find a way to stop him." Allen publicly announced his relationship with Soon-Yi on August 17, 1992. She said later that month that Allen had never been a father figure to her, and that they had become friendly only after his romance with Farrow had ended. As Allen and Farrow had never married, and as Allen had never adopted Soon-Yi, their relationship was not illegal. It continued, and they married in Venice on December 23, 1997.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: On August 4, 1992, Allen visited his children at Farrow's country home in Connecticut while Farrow and a friend went shopping with the two most recently adopted children, Tam and Isaiah. Farrow and Allen were to sign an agreement on August 6 that Allen would pay $6,000 a month for the support of Dylan, Satchel and Moses; Martin Weltz, Farrow's lawyer, said that on August 4 Farrow called him to suspend the processing of the agreement.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Present in the house once Farrow had left were Dylan; Satchel; Farrow's babysitter, Kristie Groteke; the children's French tutor, Sophie Berge; Farrow's friend's three children; and Farrow's friend's babysitter, Alison Strickland. When Farrow left the house Moses was, according to her, "off by himself taking a walk". Moses claims he was in the house when Allen arrived. The day after the visit, Strickland told her employer that she had seen Allen kneel on the floor in front of Dylan, then aged seven, with his head in her lap facing her body; she testified to that effect during the custody trial. Dylan allegedly told Farrow what had happened and that she had not liked it; Farrow telephoned her attorney for guidance and was advised to take Dylan to her local pediatrician. Farrow took Dylan to Vadakkekara Kavirajan, Farrow's regular pediatrician, to whom the girl did not make any report of abuse.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: According to the expert Farrow hired, Farrow had videotaped Dylan answering her questions before the second visit to the pediatrician, and Dylan had made the allegation of abuse "in fits and starts", and in a way that "set a tone for a child about how to answer", and Dylan told Farrow that she had been with Allen in the attic and that he had touched her private parts. The following day, they returned to see Kavirajan, and Dylan repeated the allegation. Kavirajan then informed authorities, although he said he found no physical evidence of sexual molestation. Kavirajan later told an interviewer that he was "required by state law" to report any allegations of child abuse. Susan Coates informed Allen of the allegation during one of the sessions in which he was participating in Satchel's therapy; he responded, "I'm completely flabbergasted," repeating it several times.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Farrow hired attorney Alan Dershowitz to propose to Allen that they resolve the matter without any public disclosure. Allen rejected the proposal.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: On August 13, 1992, a week after being told about the allegation, Allen began proceedings in New York Supreme Court for sole custody of Dylan, Moses, and Satchel. Farrow's mother, the actress Maureen O'Sullivan, issued a statement on August 15 that was critical of Allen and said Farrow had retained Dershowitz. Two days later, Allen released his first public comment about his relationship with Previn: "Regarding my love for Soon-Yi: It's real and happily all true. She's a lovely, intelligent, sensitive woman who has and continues to turn around my life in a wonderfully positive way."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: On August 18 Allen held a news conference at the Plaza Hotel. Calling the molestation allegation "an unconscionable and gruesomely damaging manipulation of innocent children for vindictive and self-serving motives," he alleged that, during a meeting on August 13, Farrow's lawyers had demanded between $5 million and $8 million in "hush money". Dershowitz responded that the lawyers had suggested Allen pay a lump sum in child support, rather than a monthly one, to reduce Allen's interaction with Farrow. It would be $17,000 a month until each child reach the age of 21, $900,000 for college tuition and $2,500,000 for Farrow herself as compensation for her loss of income for the next 10 years. Allen's lawyers declared that Farrow's proposal was that in exchange for the money she would drop the charges of sexual abuse. Dershowitz flatly denied this, saying he was trying to reach an agreement that would allow the matter not to be made public and convince police in Connecticut that it was best not to intervene and "decriminalize" the case, and that the proposal was completely separate and independent of the economic proposal. On August 20 Allen's publicist announced that Allen had passed a lie detector test. The following day, in an interview with Walter Isaacson of "Time" magazine, Allen called the nude photographs of Previn a "lark of a moment". Of the relationship, he said: "I didn't feel that just because she was Mia's daughter, there was any great moral dilemma. It was a fact, but not one with any great import."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: During the fall of 1992, the Connecticut State Police interviewed Dylan using anatomical dolls. The last of the interviews took place on December 30, 1992, during which Dylan inserted the penis of the male doll into the vagina of the female doll. When the police asked her why she knew that the dolls fit like that, she told them that during the summer Satchel and she had witnessed how Allen introduced his penis into Soon-Yi's vagina. "Daddies do not do this", she told them, according to the statement, and "daddies are not supposed to act like boyfriends." Eleanor Alter disclosed this in the course of a court hearing about Allen's visitation rights during the processing of the procedure. The session was suspended due to the seriousness of the allegation.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Between September and November 1992, Dylan was interviewed by specialists from Yale New Haven Hospital. One of the aspects these sessions explored was the relationship between boyfriends and girlfriends. In November 1992 that relationship consisted for Dylan in "kisses and hugs." The judicial investigation concluded that the sexual relationship between Soon Yi and Allen began in December 1991. Allen denied Dylan's allegations that she had witnessed him and Previn having sex in the summer of 1991, insisting that their sexual relationship didn't begin until December. Allen also attacked Farrow, stating, "I think that when Mia needs something, she takes our daughter and makes her say it."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Allen and Farrow reached an agreement according to which Allen would not begin visits with Dylan immediately and Farrow would provide a therapist for her.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: On August 17, 1992, the Connecticut State Police announced that they were investigating the molestation allegation. In September the police referred Dylan to the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of Yale New Haven Hospital. The main questions were whether Dylan was telling the truth and whether she was sexually abused. Frank Maco, State's Attorney for the Litchfield district, declared in 1997 that he asked the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic to evaluate whether Dylan would make a viable witness. The clinic's professionals met with the police and Maco for preliminary information. Between September 18 and November 13 they conducted nine separate interviews with Dylan and her mother. On October 14 they interviewed Groteke, and between November 17 and January 7 they had three interviews with Allen. Finally, they met with Farrow to review the recording she had made of Dylan between August 5 and 6. Berge, the other nanny present on August 4, was also interviewed, as were the two psychotherapists treating the children, Coates and Nancy Schultz. The Child Sexual Abuse Clinic medical director, Dr. John M. Leventhal, signed the team's report while Dylan was interviewed by the social workers. Completed in March 1993, the report concluded: "It is our expert opinion that Dylan was not sexually abused by Mr. Allen."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The team had proposed the study as an attempt to corroborate or refute some of these basic hypotheses:


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The team concluded Dylan had not been sexually abused, but did not state which of the remaining hypotheses was true. It deemed the best explanation for the allegation a combination of the two.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The team members were Leventhal; Dr. Julia Hamilton, who was also a social worker and co-director of the Yale Medical Center Child Abuse Program; and social worker Sawyer, who had a master's degree in social work and ten years of experience. The social workers met Dylan in Yale New Haven every Friday for an hour or so. Groteke was interviewed for three hours. Maureen Orth stated that its conclusion was based, in part, on the view that Dylan had difficulty telling a consistent story and suffered from "thought disturbances." According to the report, the inconsistencies in Dylan's statements, the lack of spontaneity, and the impression of repeating something learned were the main reason for the conclusions. The report also stressed that Dylan felt that she had to solve her mother's problems, and indicated that the relationship between Farrow, Dylan and Satchel was very disturbed and required immediate intensive psychotherapy. The team destroyed the original notes when incorporating their content into the report. The report was immediately sent to the state police, who informed Farrow that day and two days before Allen was informed. Maco told a reporter in 1997 that Yale "took the case and ran away with it."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The custody hearings began on March 19, 1993, in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, and ended on May 4. Journalists were allowed in court but television cameras and microphones were not. Taking the stand on the first day, Allen said the allegation was Farrow's vengeance for his romantic relationship with Soon-Yi, which he had not intended to be "anything but a private thing"; he had hoped Farrow would not find out about it. He described her anger when she did.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Groteke, Farrow's babysitter, testified in April that for about 15–20 minutes on the afternoon in question, she had not been able to find Dylan or Allen in the house; she had assumed they were outside with the other children. Allen said he had gone to the bathroom during the disputed period. Berge testified that she had noticed Dylan was wearing no underwear under her dress that day. Another Farrow nanny, Monica Thompson, who was not present in the house on that day, told Allen's lawyers in two affidavits in February 1993 that she had felt pressured by Farrow to support the allegation. Thompson said that Groteke had also had reservations; according to Thompson, Groteke told her, days after the allegation was made, that she "did not have Dylan out of her sight for longer than five minutes. She did not remember Dylan being without her underwear." Groteke acknowledged that she had had that conversation, but admitted only to telling Thompson that she did not remember having lost sight of Dylan. Thompson, who had been Dylan's nanny since the girl was two months old, also said that the charges Farrow brought against Allen were "not true". Mavis Smith, Farrow's housekeeper of 13 years, said she thought Allen was a good father and that she had never seen Allen doing anything sexual with Dylan or Satchel.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Coates testified that Farrow had been so angry with Allen when she discovered his relationship with Previn that Coates had feared for Allen's safety. Farrow's lawyer accused Coates of gullibility for having accepted Allen's version of events. Farrow and Allen hired Schultz in April 1991 because the child "lived in her own fantasy world". Schultz testified that Dylan had become "absorbed in what the fantasy is [and] that it became real". Neither Coates nor Schultz believed sexual abuse had occurred. One of Allen's lawyers alleged that Farrow's lawyers had suggested "the charges could be made to go away" if Allen agreed to pay around $7 million. Dershowitz, representing Farrow, said there had been an "exploratory" session to attempt mediation. "To have this described as an extortionate meeting is ridiculous," he said. He added that Allen's lawyers were "trying to set a trap, the trap failed and now they testify as if the trap succeeded". One of Allen's lawyers acknowledged when cross-examined that the discussion about money related mostly to the children's education and medical care, as well as money owed for Farrow's film work for Allen. Levett, Farrow's lawyer, acknowledged that he suggested various amounts to reach an agreement "for child support, including household help: $17,000 a month until the youngest of the children turned 21, roughly $2.5 million factoring in inflation and interest. For tuition, assuming all three went to college: $800,000 to $900,000. Plus unspecified medical and, yes, psychiatric expenses. There might be a damage claim for Dylan, who had accused her father of molesting her. And some compensation for Mia Farrow, who'd earned $300,000 a year for her roles in Allen's annual films and was entitled to that sum for five to ten years now that she was out of a job." Dershowitz echoed Levett's testimony, but said that a proposal was made to intercede in the child-abuse investigation in favor of a private settlement. He added that the offer "was not premised on any payments." On October 14, 1992, Dershowitz told interviewer Charlie Rose: "I don't think it ever had to come out. If he [Woody Allen] had not filed that suit, I don't think anybody would know the story today and I think it would be resolved quietly behind the scenes."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Leventhal testified by deposition on April 20, 1993. Citing inconsistencies in Dylan's account, he said that once the hypothesis that Dylan's narrative corresponded to events that actually happened was discarded, the Yale New Haven team "had two hypotheses: one, that these were statements that were made by an emotionally disturbed child and then became fixed in her mind, and the other hypothesis was that she was coached or influenced by her mother. We did not come to a firm conclusion. We think that it was probably a combination." Farrow and Allen both hired expert witnesses to discuss the report. Anne Meltzer, a forensic psychologist, testified for Allen that the report had "reached conclusions that were supported well by the data they collected." She said the tape of Dylan making the allegation was "flawed" because it had been filmed by one side and not by a professional. Stephen Herman, a child psychiatrist, testified for Farrow that the report was "seriously flawed", and that he could find no evidence of a thought disorder in Dylan's statements, but that the report was not biased and that, in light of the evidence, he could not reach any conclusion about the allegation of abuse. To Charles Patrick Ewing and Joseph McCann, the most damaging criticism of the report was that the team had destroyed its notes from the interviews it conducted, which meant the court could not test the validity of the report's conclusions; they write that forensic experts have an obligation to retain their notes for review. Another criticism was that the team was unwilling to testify in court, except via Leventhal's deposition. Herman also recognized the tape of Dylan making the allegation was flawed because it was made in a way that "set a tone for a child about how to answer". He also concluded that there was no point to evaluating Dylan again about the allegation.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: All the psychiatric experts who testified in the trial agreed that Allen was able to play a beneficial role in Dylan's therapy.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In his 33-page decision in June 1993, Justice Elliott Wilk rejected Allen's bid for custody of the three children and rejected the allegation of sexual abuse, denied Allen immediate visitation rights with Dylan, saying of Allen's behavior toward Dylan that it was "grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her" while pointing out that Allen's inappropriate behavior was not sexual in nature.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Rejecting Allen's portrayal of Farrow as a "woman scorned", Wilk said there was no credible evidence that she had coached Dylan, although the videotape she made of Dylan compromised the investigation of sexual abuse, and criticized Allen for his "trial strategy" of turning family members and employees against one another. The Yale New Haven team's unwillingness to testify in court, except through Leventhal's deposition, together with the destruction of its notes, had rendered its report, he wrote, "sanitized and, therefore, less credible". Wilk called the case "frivolous" and ordered Allen to pay Farrow's costs. Regarding the allegation of abuse, Wilk concluded that the evidence did not support that it had occurred, although he was not sure that the evidence demonstrated conclusively that it had not. Wilk did not order a new battery of forensic testing with Dylan because all the experts had agreed with the limited report's conclusions and because it would not after the period of time elapsed be beneficial or provide useful information.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The Connecticut State Police interviewed Allen in Litchfield in January 1993 for over three hours. He said he had never been in the attic crawl space; when the police said they had taken fingerprints in there, he said it was possible that his prints were there. The forensic specialist chief of Connecticut's state crime laboratory, Dr. Henry Lee, said that what police has found in the crawl space was hair fibers and that the evidence could not place Allen in the attic. On September 20 that year, Frank Maco, accompanied by a female police detective, talked to Dylan; Maco told a reporter in 1997, "I saw complete withdrawal any time I tried to discuss the incident."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: On September 24, 1993, Maco held a news conference to say that he would not pursue the molestation allegation, despite having probable cause, citing a desire not to traumatize Dylan. In the official statement of decision of the prosecution, Maco acknowledged that even in the case of custody and with a more favorable standard of proof for the accusation than "beyond a reasonable doubt" it had been impossible to reach the conclusion that the abuse had occurred. He also said that the nature of the evidence was fertile ground for the defense and "would not have the same probative as it did in the New York Supreme Court custody case" and that he considered his duty "to avoid the unjustifiable risk of exposing a child to the rigors and uncertainties of a questionable prosecution".


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In a letter to the New York Department of Social Services, Allen's psychotherapist Kathryn Prescott said that his psychological profile "was definitely not that of a sexual offender" and also said, "There has never been any suggestion that Mr. Allen was suffering from a sexual perversion / deviant sexual behavior." The New York Department of Social Services closed its own 14-month investigation in October 1993; its letter to Allen stated: "No credible evidence was found that the child named in this report has been abused or maltreated. This report has, therefore, been considered unfounded."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Allen filed complaints with the Connecticut Criminal Justice Commission and the statewide bar counsel over Maco's statement about probable cause. The former dismissed the complaint in November 1993. In February 1994 the statewide Grievance Committee ruled that, while Maco had not violated the state's code of conduct for lawyers, his statement was cause for "grave concern". In addition, Maco had sent a copy of his statement to the judge who was deciding whether to overturn Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses. That act was "inappropriate, unsolicited and potentially prejudicial", the panel ruled.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In December 1992 Farrow began an unsuccessful legal action to have Allen's adoption of Dylan and Moses voided. Her position was based in part on her view that Allen's romantic relationship with Previn had begun before the adoption was finalized on December 17, 1991. Allen said that the sexual relationship had started in the last week of 1991. He offered not to appeal the custody ruling if Farrow dropped her attempt to have his adoption of Dylan and Moses voided, but she refused.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In January 1994 Allen appealed Wilk's decision. Of the molestation allegation, the appellate court concluded, "the evidence in support of the allegations remains inconclusive," stated that its "review of the record militates against a finding that Ms. Farrow fabricated the allegations without any basis" and explicitly corrected Wilk by stating that the Yale–New Haven team's view that Dylan had a tendency to "withdraw into a fantasy," and that she had given inconsistent accounts, had to be taken into account. As elements suggesting that the abuse could have occurred but insufficient for this conclusion to be more likely than the contrary the court listed "the testimony given at trial by the individuals caring for the children that day, the videotape of Dylan made by Ms. Farrow the following day and the accounts of Dylan's behavior toward Mr. Allen both before and after the alleged instance of abuse." The court was critical of Allen's parenting skills and relationship with Previn. The appeal failed, although two of the five judges said the visitation rights regarding Satchel were too restrictive. Allen appealed again, and in July 1995 the New York Court of Appeals upheld the original decision.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Soon-Yi wrote in 1992 that Allen was never a father figure to her, but just "man who happens to be the ex-boyfriend of Mia ... Mia was always very hot-tempered and given to rages which terrified all the kids. They can't speak freely because they're still dependent on her. But they could really tell stories and I'm sure one day will. It's true Mia was violent with me and I have conclusive proof, but I hope she and Woody can somehow head off a custody trial."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In Mia Farrow's 1997 memoir, "What Falls Away", Farrow repeated the accusation that Allen had sexually abused Dylan. The allegation was mentioned in several of the book's reviews.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: When Allen won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in January 2014, Farrow and Satchel (now going by the name Ronan Farrow and working as a journalist) tweeted objections. Dylan, then 28, repeated the molestation allegation the next month in an open letter on the "New York Times" blog of Nicholas Kristof, a family friend. Writing that Allen had made her feel uncomfortable "for as long as [she] could remember", she alleged, for example, that he would get into bed with her in his underwear and that she would hide to avoid him. She wrote that when she was seven years old, Allen told her "to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me." Allen called the allegations "untrue and disgraceful" and responded with an op-ed in the "Times". Ronan noted that the "Times" allowed Dylan's open letter 936 words on Kristof's blog while Allen's op-ed was twice as long and published in the print edition.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Ronan, aged four in 1992, has been critical of Allen for several years; in 2011 he tweeted, "He's my father married to my sister. That makes me his son and his brother-in-law. That is such a moral transgression." In "The Hollywood Reporter" in May 2016, he wrote that, after Dylan's open letter was published, his colleagues had forwarded him the daily emails "blasted out by Allen's powerful publicist", with an open cc list, offering talking points for reporters and the names of friends, therapists and lawyers willing to be interviewed. He wrote: "Reporters on the receiving end of this kind of PR blitz have to wonder if deviating from the talking points might jeopardize their access to all the other A-list clients."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Dylan's brother Moses, who was 14 in 1992, has reconciled with Allen and is estranged from the Farrow family. When Dylan published her open letter, he said in an interview that several people had been in the house on the disputed day and that "no one, not my father or sister, was off in any private spaces". He asserted that Farrow had cultivated a climate in which he and his siblings had felt compelled to support her views, and that she had abused him physically and emotionally. Moses repeated the allegations in 2017 to Eric Lax, one of Allen's biographers.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In December 2017, following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Dylan wrote an op-ed in the "Los Angeles Times" asking, "Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?" She repeated the molestation allegation in January 2018 in a television interview with Gayle King for "CBS This Morning".


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In January Moses had already reacted on his Twitter account to Dylan's new statements, explaining that he had seen Mia Farrow on many occasions trying to convince Dylan that she had been abused. On May 23, 2018, Moses posted online a long open letter with new elements, in which he alleged in detail that Farrow physically and emotionally abused him and Soon-Yi: "She hit me uncontrollably all over my body. She slapped me, pushed me backwards and hit me on my chest, shouting, 'How dare you say I'm a liar in front of my friend? You're the pathological liar.' I was defeated, deflated, beaten and beaten down. ... When Soon-Yi was young, Mia once threw a large porcelain centerpiece at her head. Luckily it missed, but the shattered pieces hit her legs. Years later, Mia beat her with a telephone receiver." Moses also says Farrow treated her biological children better than her adopted ones, and that Mia "brainwashed" her kids to accept her own version of insignificant things.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Moses claims that on the afternoon of the alleged abuse, he was at home: "As the 'man of the house' that day, I had promised to keep an eye out for any trouble, and I was doing just that. I remember where Woody sat in the TV room, and I can picture where Dylan and Satchel were. Not that everybody stayed glued to the same spot, but I deliberately made sure to note everyone's coming and going. I do remember that Woody would leave the room on occasion, but never with Dylan. He would wander into another room to make a phone call, read the paper, use the bathroom, or step outside to get some air and walk around the large pond on the property." Moses also claimed that the memory his sister has of having been abused while focusing her attention on an electric train set is not possible: "It's a precise and compelling narrative, but there's a major problem: there "was" no electric train set in that attic. There was, in fact, no way for kids to play up there, even if we had wanted to. It was an unfinished crawl space, under a steeply-angled gabled roof, with exposed nails and floorboards, billows of fiberglass insulation, filled with mousetraps and droppings and stinking of mothballs, and crammed with trunks full of hand-me-down clothes and my mother's old wardrobes. The idea that the space could possibly have accommodated a functioning electric train set, circling around the attic, is ridiculous."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Moses wrote that Thompson saw Farrow filming Dylan in what looked like an effort to coach her. He further alleged that Farrow drove some of her children to suicide: "Most media sources claim my sister Tam died of 'heart failure' at the age of 21. In fact, Tam struggled with depression for much of her life, a situation exacerbated by my mother refusing to get her help, insisting that Tam was just 'moody'. One afternoon in 2000, after one final fight with Mia, which ended with my mother leaving the house, Tam committed suicide by overdosing on pills."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: Of the shy support he had given to Mia when he was a teenager, Moses stated: "During the custody hearing, my mother kept stressing how we needed to stick together as a family. Frightened and beaten down, I, too, played my part. I even wrote a letter condemning Woody, saying that he had done something horrible and unforgivable, and had broken my dreams. I even read the letter for the news media that were now regularly gathered at the end of our driveway, knowing that doing so would earn my mother's approval. That public denouncement of my father remains the biggest regret of my life."


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In an article in "Vulture", Previn alleged that Farrow invented stories about her origins: "When Soon-Yi was a girl, she says, Farrow asked her to make a tape about her origins, detailing how she'd been the daughter of a prostitute who beat her. The request puzzled her, Soon-Yi says, since she had no memory of anything like that, so she refused...'Mia used to write words on my arm, which was humiliating, so I'd always wear long-sleeved shirts. She would also tip me upside down, holding me by my feet, to get the blood to drain to my head. Because she thought—or she read it, God knows where she came up with the notion—that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something'." According to Previn, Farrow also resorted to "arbitrarily showing her power" by slapping her across the face and spanking her with a hairbrush or calling her "stupid" and "moronic". Previn also claimed she and her adopted sisters were used as "domestics".


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In January 2018, the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut canceled its adaptation of Allen's film "Bullets over Broadway" (1994). The following month, Circle Theater in Grand Rapids, Michigan, also canceled their adaptation of "Bullets over Broadway".


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: In February 2018, Savanah Lyon, a theater major at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), began organizing an online petition to have a course teaching Allen's films removed from the UCSD syllabus, saying that because of the abuse allegations against him, the university should not have a class devoted to his work. On February 16, the UCSD Academic Senate announced that it would retain the course, stating that the removal of courses featuring "controversial material, or even material widely regarded as morally problematic" would undermine the values of free inquiry and academic freedom.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: After Dylan's 2014 open letter, several actors issued statements critical of Allen, including Rosie O'Donnell, Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman, and Susan Sarandon.


title: Woody Allen sexual abuse allegation

text: The mood changed further as a result of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements and Dylan's op-ed. During a November 2017 women's rally, a banner referring to the allegation was hung around the neck of Allen's statue in Oviedo, Spain. A women's group later asked that the statue be removed. From October 2017 statements supportive of Dylan, or expressing regret at having worked with Allen, were issued by Griffin Newman, Evan Rachel Wood, David Krumholtz, Mira Sorvino, Rebecca Hall, Timothée Chalamet, Rachel Brosnahan, Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Hayley Atwell, and Freida Pinto. Newman, Hall, Chalamet and Elle Fanning said they would donate their earnings from Allen's film "A Rainy Day in New York" (2018) to charities.