Jeffrey Epstein introduced Prince Andrew to Woody Allen, both facing sex assault claims, at Manhattan dinner
Prince Andrew and Woody Allen may occupy different realms of global celebrity across the pond, but they are back in the news as they face renewed calls to be held accountable for sexual abuse allegations involving underage girls from decades ago.
The Duke of York and the Oscar-winning filmmaker reportedly had a mutual friend in Jeffrey Epstein, the late pedophile financier who died under mysterious circumstances in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges. In fact, Epstein brought both Andrew, 61, and Allen, 85, together for an infamous dinner party at his Upper East Side mansion in December 2010, the Daily Beast reported.
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The party — with Andrew as the chief guest — reportedly took place about a year after Epstein completed his 13-month jail sentence in Florida after pleading guilty to securing a minor for prostitution. His lenient jail term was part of a widely criticized "sweetheart" plea deal that sparked an FBI investigation into how he groomed dozens of underage girls to engage in sex acts with him, his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and even trafficked them to his rich and powerful friends abroad.
Coming back to that infamous dinner, the remaining guests were mostly members of New York City's media elite, including Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Rose. However, the Daily Beast report focused more on some of the interactions between Andrew and Allen, including when the latter tried to secure an invitation to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Comedian Chelsea Handler had tagged along with Couric as a guest, but apparently had no idea who Epstein was. During a recent appearance on actor Rob Lowe's podcast, Handler recalled being seated next to Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, and how the evening was "weird" and "awkward" for her. “I was like, what are we doing here?” Handler told Lowe. “And then I asked Woody Allen how he and Soon-Yi met. I had forgotten for a moment.”
It's worth noting that Previn, the adoptive daughter of actress Mia Farrow, is Allen's ex-girlfriend and longtime muse. In January 1992, Farrow discovered Previn had started an affair with Allen, sparking a Hollywood sex scandal that would be talked about for years to come.
The most disturbing allegation of the scandal was by Dylan Farrow, Allen and Mia Farrow’s adoptive daughter, who claimed Allen had molested her in August 1992 when she was just seven years old. The accusation became the subject of the recent HBO docuseries “Allen v Farrow.”
That said, it is unclear how Allen and Epstein crossed paths. However, it's worth noting that both were longtime neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and the filmmaker and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, were photographed leaving the financier’s townhouse multiple times over the years.
Allen and Previn started socializing with Epstein sometime after their wedding in 1997, albeit their association became more evident in the last decade after Epstein's child-prostitution case made him a registered sex offender and elicited media scrutiny.
The couple was spotted with Epstein in September 2013, five years after his conviction. A Page Six report at the time carried the headline, "Woody Allen pals around with child-sex creep," and quoted a witness who said Epstein “was hugging (Allen) and talking close to his ear,” and “had his arm on Woody’s shoulder."
Epstein, Allen, and his young wife Previn were spotted trolling down Madison Avenue before eventually arriving at the hedge-fund honcho's seven-story home on East 71st Street. According to the Daily Beast, Epstein had hosted another dinner of “influential individuals,” where he introduced Allen to Joi Ito, the disgraced former director of MIT's Media Lab.