Why Woody Allen’s New Novel Sounds Even Worse Than You Might Think

Warning: This article contains details of sexual assault.

Woody Allen has a new project that will in no way require securing financing or attempting to cajole famous actors into working with him against their better judgement. The 89-year-old filmmaker has reportedly written his first novel entitled What’s with Baum? which will be released this September. 

While it may sound like a Jerry Seinfeld routine about the author of The Wizard of Oz, What’s with Baum? is really about “a middle-aged Jewish journalist turned novelist and playwright” named Asher Baum who lives in New York and is “consumed with anxiety about everything under the sun.” 

So, you know, not exactly a stretch.

While Allen writing a story about a nervous intellectual in Manhattan is about as shocking as John Grisham tackling the subject of plucky Southern lawyers, the book’s plot synopsis does include some conspicuously questionable details. A number of plot points could be interpreted as Allen reflecting on his own life, specifically, his many controversies. Baum’s wife, it seems, has a “close relationship with her son, a more successful author than he,” and he is “suspicious of her closeness with their neighbor in Connecticut.” Hearing this, it’s tough not to think about Allen’s ex-wife Mia Farrow, who famously lives in Connecticut, and whose son, Ronan Farrow, is currently enjoying a great deal of success as a writer.

But most surprisingly, it sounds as if this book is going to be about the protagonist’s fear of getting canceled after he sexually assaults someone. “In a moment of irrationality, (Baum) has impulsively tried to kiss a pretty young journalist during an interview that she is about to go public with,” the synopsis explains.

Obviously Allen didn’t try to make out with a “young” reporter without her consent (that we know of), but he was famously accused of sexually abusing his seven-year-old daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992, which he has denied. He was never charged with a crime, and his career continued to thrive, until the allegations were revived in the mid-2010s. The case was also the subject of the 2021 docuseries Allen v. Farrow.

The allegations against Allen and his literary protagonist are clearly different, but the fact that Allen just wrote a book about a celebrity’s concerns over the ramifications of a sexual assault is surely not accidental. And this would hardly be the first time that Allen has referenced the more sordid aspects of his personal life in his work. Plus, as we’ve mentioned before, his last movie, Coup De Chance, seemingly included a reference to a disputed piece of evidence from the ‘92 case against him.

That said, even Allen thought that playing a pervy director in a Louis C.K. film would be a little too on the nose.