Guilty or not, Woody Allen benefits from culture of tolerance

Still on the subject of Woody Allen and these sex abuse claims by Dylan Farrow: Regardless of whether he is guilty of child sexual abuse or not, the scandal has got me thinking about how the industry he works in deals with such accusations.

With this issue currently hogging the headlines, there is widespread condemnation of the director. And there seems to be potential fallout for others who have worked with him recently. For example, some industry insiders feel that Cate Blanchett, who starred in Allen's Blue Jasmine, may lose a deserved best actress Oscar as a result of the scandal.

That said, there's little or no talk of Allen's directorial career ending entirely -- or even suffering significantly. Unless the stoush winds up in court again and he's found guilty of being a vile rock spider and thrown in the clink, he's still going to keep making movies.

This whole issue was widely reported back in 1992 anyway. He was legally exonerated to a great degree back than. Still, much of the mud that was thrown certainly stuck to him. Yet his career recovered pretty quickly afterwards.

Numerous well known and accomplished actors and other film professionals jumped at the chance to work with him, even quite soon after claims that he abused his step-daughter Dylan were reported across the globe. You've got to wonder how many of them secretly harboured the belief that he was guilty of child abuse yet still collaborated with him.

Then there's the case of Roman Polanski. He clearly was guilty of child abuse -- the rape of a 13 year old girl, to be exact. He even fled the USA to avoid justice.

While he never got to make another movie on American soil, he has still directed many critically well-received flicks in the decades since. As well as working with the cream of the world's film technicians, his movies have starred household names such as Gerard Depardieu and Harrison Ford.

Then of course there was his recent extradition saga. Numerous Hollywood liberals sang his praises, sometimes even publicly slagging off his victim!

The industry seems to be just as tolerant of child sexual abuse as it is of the use of illegal drugs. Hate to sound like a moralistic ol' bore, but that's pretty disturbing, don't you think?