Woody Allen

It's like something out of a Woody Allen movie -- one of the later ones: somber, depressing, full of questions about ethical behavior and full of awe at the capacity of intelligent people to completely screw up their lives. And not a joke in sight.And that's why the revelations and accusations contained in the case of Woody Allen, Mia Farrow and her adopted Korean daughter are so saddening. It's not that reality is imitating art, it's that reality just stinks.In the abstract, of course, it's just another sordid show biz scandal, a business as usual kind of thing involving the messy breakup of a celebrity relationship, charges of despicable sexual behavior with a whiff of hypocrisy that makes it particularly juicy.

At last: a "Manhattan" project that doesn't produce a bomb!Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery" isn't the best movie Woody Allen ever made but it's far from the worst. Its cardinal feature is its lack of ambition. In fact, it feels like the 10th step in a 12-step recovery program ("10. Make a nice movie."), a pleasant, easy project with enough zingers to leave them laughing in the cheap seats but otherwise unclouded with angst, guilt, misery, doubt and suffering, all those lugubrious demons with which Allen has wrestled for the past few years.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Woody Allen said yesterday that a team of physicians and social workers had exonerated him of Mia Farrow's allegation that he molested their adopted 7-year-old daughter Dylan last summer at the actress' home in nearby Bridgewater."

Amid a bombardment of tabloid missiles and an outpouring of accusations and counteraccusations, Woody Allen decided to talk with Newsweek about his relationship with Mia Farrow, with her children and his, and with Soon-Yi. He also responded to the accusations of abuse of his adopted daughter Dylan. Following is an excerpt from the three and a half hour interview in his Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment.Q: The question most people are concerned about is Mia Farrow's charge that you sexually molested Dylan.

NEW YORK -- Woody Allen was the only one to take th witness stand yesterday. But it was the voice of a child that seemed to resonate loudest in the packed courtroom.A letter that Moses Farrow Allen, 14, wrote to his adoptive father was read by Mia Farrow's attorney, revealing a child's-eye view of the heartbreak that this nasty custody battle has apparently wrought."You've done a horrible, unforgivable, needy, ugly, stupid thing," Moses wrote to Mr. Allen, 57, after his affair with Ms. Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Farrow Previn, 22, became public last year.

OK, so his personal life is far from perfect. Whose is?But in his comedy writing, Woody Allen often seems flawless. His direction of comedy can be inspired. And as a comedic actor, for most roles, you couldn't go wrong.Allen has never been better in all three departments than he is tomorrow night in an ABC made-for-TV movie version of his hit play, "Don't Drink the Water."The 1966 play, which became a feature film starring Jackie Gleason two years later, is one of the truly memorable comedies of the 1960s.

WOODY ALLEN: A BIOGRAPHY. Eric Lax. Knopf.377 pages. $24. Laughter, wrote Christopher Fry, is the "surest touch of genius in creation."That is not enough for Woody Allen.As Eric Lax, a longtime friend, makes clear in this first full-scale biography of the writer-comedian-filmmaker, Mr. Allen is dissatisfied with his success as a humorist and creator of funny films. He disparingly calls his jokes "verbal cartoons"; dismisses his hilarious stand-up routines of the 1960s and early 1970s as "nauseating," "loathsome" and "disgusting"; and complains that by becoming an extraordinarily popular film comedian, "I succeed at my second choice."

Woody Allen looks his schleppy, pre-scandal self on Esquire's October cover, smiling his inscrutable-nebbish smile. But, unfortunately, the article sweats and strains to reinvent Woody as the Wronged Papa for Our Time: "As a father denied, he has found unexpected bravado that is sometimes a thrill to behold."You can feel writer Bill Zehme bursting veins trying to lift Woody's reputation, leading us on a pathos-laden tour of Satchel Farrow's bedroom and dropping quaint details like "Friends love to recall the notorious incident of Woody and Satchel mixing cake batter and adding the frosting before baking."

Woody Allen returns to his roots in "Sweet and Lowdown," a gentle comedy set in the Jazz Age that avoids the dyspepsia and hysterically pitched self-pity of his most recent movies and hearkens back to the tender, observant humor that made Allen such a beloved figure in the American cinema. Sean Penn plays Emmet Ray, a brilliant jazz guitarist (second only to Django Reinhardt) who supports himself as a pimp (he prefers the term "manager"), whose idea of a night out is shooting rats in the dump, and who has a self-destructive knack for getting himself fired just when he's hitting his stride.

Many critics who hate the new Woody Allen movie, Melinda and Melinda, still love the idea behind it - but after you see it you have to wonder why. The set-up goes like this: In a Greenwich Village bistro, a humorous playwright (Wallace Shawn) and a serious one (Larry Pine) debate their views of life. To flesh out their ideas, they decide to draw parallel plot-lines from the same gambit: An unmoored young beauty named Melinda (Radha Mitchell) barges in on a dinner party and becomes a pivotal influence on the future of the married hosts.