Hachette Drops Woody Allen Memoir After Staff Walk-Out, Decision Was ‘a Difficult One’

By Elaine Low

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – A day after about 75 staffers staged a walk-out to protest the publisher’s upcoming release of Woody Allen’s memoir, Hachette Book Group has decided to drop the book, “A Propos of Nothing,” which was originally scheduled for sale in April.

Hachette is in the midst of conducting a town hall to address the decision not to publish the book, copies of which have already been printed and for which Allen has already received at least one payment, a source tells Variety.

“The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one,” said a Hachette spokesperson in a statement. “At HBG we take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly. We have published and will continue to publish many challenging books. As publishers, we make sure every day in our work that different voices and conflicting points of views can be heard.

“Also, as a company, we are committed to offering a stimulating, supportive and open work environment for all our staff. Over the past few days, HBG leadership had extensive conversations with our staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that moving forward with publication would not be feasible for HBG.”

All rights will revert back to Allen.

On Thursday, dozens of employees at Hachette’s Grand Central Publishing, Little, Brown and Company and other imprints walked out of the publisher’s New York office to protest publication of the memoir, to “stand in solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow and survivors of sexual assault,” they said in a statement.

Ronan Farrow on Tuesday expressed disappointment that Hachette, the publisher of his book “Catch and Kill,” had “concealed the decision” from him to publish Allen’s memoir. He also expressed support for his sister, who has alleged that Allen, her adoptive father, sexually abused her as a child. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations over the years. Farrow said Hachette had not reached out to his sister to respond to any related statements in Allen’s book, and had not fact-checked the memoir.

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