Los Angeles (CNN) — Renewed accusations that Woody Allen molested an adopted daughter two decades ago were “engineered by a vengeful lover,” the filmmaker’s lawyer told CNN on Monday.
The allegations were “fully vetted and rejected by independent authorities,” Allen attorney Elkan Abramowitz said in a written statement.
The controversy dates back to 1992 after the revelation that Allen, then 56, was having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow’s 19-year-old adopted daughter with composer Andre Previn. Allen and Previn married five years later.
Allen’s legal and public relations teams scrambled to respond to an open letter written by Dylan Farrow and published by The New York Times on Saturday recounting her allegation that Allen sexually assaulted her when she was a child.
“What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house,” Farrow wrote. “He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me.”