Blake Lively is at Cannes to promote her new Woody Allen film Café Society. Blake Lively does not like that people are talking about the allegations that Woody Allen sexually assaulted his own daughter. When asked by Variety about a rape joke that Cannes master of ceremonies Laurent Lafitte made at Allen’s expense yesterday, the beautiful actress called for decorum.
“I think any jokes about rape, homophobia, or Hitler is not a joke,” she said. “I think that was a hard thing swallow in 30 seconds. Film festivals are such beautiful, respectful festivals of film and artists and to have that, it felt like it wouldn’t have happened if it was in the 1940s. I can’t imagine Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby going out and doing that. It was more disappointing for the artists in the room that someone was going up there making jokes about something that wasn’t funny.”
Lively has a point. It’s hard to imagine a high-powered writer/director being called out for his alleged crimes in a social climate like the one that existed in the 1940s, when stuff like marital rape was still legal.
Variety followed up by asking Lively about Ronan Farrow’s Hollywood Reporter piece about Allen, and she said she hadn’t read it. “I came home and went to bed at whatever time we finished,” she said. “I haven’t been in it, so I don’t want to speak on something I haven’t read. I think that’s dangerous. It’s definitely something that being at the festival, the media these days, you come to a film festival about film and people talk about all different types of things. You know? That can be definitely tricky to navigate, I’m sure. I don’t want to speak about something I haven’t read.”
It is tricky!
