Woody Allen has been blasted on Twitter after condoning the act of winking at women in the workplace in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations.
The filmmaker made the comments after saying he was “sad” for Weinstein. In a stronger statement issued later, he clarified he felt sorry for the movie mogul because he is a “sad, sick man”.
Allen, who has been forced to deny allegations of sexual abuse from his adopted daughter in the past, also complained that the Weinstein scandal might make winking at work unacceptable.
“You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself,” he told the BBC. “That’s not right either.”
His words prompted a swift reaction online, where he was shut down by Twitter users who pointed out that winking at women in the workplace was already unacceptable.
Allen has denied knowing about the Weinstein allegations during his career. He told the BBC: “No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness.”
Meanwhile, thousands of men and women took to Twitter to share their experiences of sexual assault in the wake of the Weinstein allegations using the “#MeToo” hashtag.
