One man's irresponsible lust and vanity and the women he seduced!
Woody Allen's Secret Teen Lover Speaks: Sex, Power and a Conflicted Muse Who Inspired 'Manhattan'
In 1976, 16-year-old model Babi Christina Engelhardt embarked on a hidden eight-year affair with the 41–year-old filmmaker that mirrors one of his most famous movies. Now, amid the #MeToo reckoning and Allen’s personal scandals, she looks back with mixed emotions on their relationship and its unequal dynamic.
Sixteen, emerald-eyed, blond, an aspiring model with a confident streak and a painful past: Babi Christina Engelhardt had just caught Woody Allen's gaze at legendary New York City power restaurant Elaine's. It was October 1976, and when Engelhardt returned from the ladies' room, she dropped a note on his table with her phone number. It brazenly read: "Since you've signed enough autographs, here's mine!"
Soon, Allen rang, inviting her to his Fifth Avenue penthouse. The already-famous 41-year-old director, still hot off Sleeper and who'd release Annie Hall the following spring, never asked her age. But she told him she was still in high school, living with her family in rural New Jersey as she pursued her modeling ambitions in Manhattan. Within weeks, they'd become physically intimate at his place. She wouldn't turn 17, legal in New York, until that December.
The pair embarked on, by her account, a clandestine romance of eight years, the claustrophobic, controlling and yet dreamy dimensions of which she's still processing more than four decades later. For her, the recent re-examination of gender power dynamics initiated by the #MeToo movement (and Allen's personal scandals, including a claim of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow) has turned what had been a melancholic if still sweet memory into something much more uncomfortable. Like others among her generation — she just turned 59 on Dec. 4 — Engelhardt is resistant to attempts to have the life she led then be judged by what she considers today's newly established norms. "It's almost as if I'm now expected to trash him," she says.
Time, though, has transfigured what she's long viewed as a secret, unspoken monument to their then-still-ongoing relationship: 1979's Manhattan, in which 17-year-old Tracy (Oscar-nominated Mariel Hemingway) enthusiastically beds Allen's 42-year-old character Isaac "Ike" Davis. The film has always "reminded me why I thought he was so interesting — his wit is magnetic," Engelhardt says. "It was why I liked him and why I'm still impressed with him as an artist. How he played with characters in his movies, and how he played with me."
Two of Engelhardt's close friends from the period affirm they were aware of Engelhardt's relationship with Allen at the time — one would even drop her off at his penthouse. Photographer Andrew Unangst, who was dining with her at Elaine's the night she made her move on Allen, also says he knew about the long-running tryst she initiated that night. "She was a knockout, and outgoing too," he says of the gambit. Engelhardt's younger brother Mike remembers Allen calling their parents' home: "I'd holler out, 'Babi, it's Woody!' My brain didn't think something romantic; I was 11 or 12 and a huge fan. I mean, Bananas?!"
Engelhardt and her journey, shared here publicly for the first time, are complicated. She's proud of her teenage self as an up-by-her-bootstraps heroine who successfully beguiled a "celebrated genius." Even now, she holds herself largely responsible for remaining in the relationship as long as she did and for the frustration and sorrow that ultimately came with the liaison — one in which, by her description, she never held any agency. (Most experts would contend that such an uneven power dynamic is inherently exploitative.)
Even with hindsight, though, she's unwilling to indict Allen, who declined to comment for this story. "What made me speak is I thought I could provide a perspective," she offers. "I'm not attacking Woody," she says. "This is not 'bring down this man.' I'm talking about my love story. This made me who I am. I have no regrets.".
Today, Engelhardt (who dropped Babi from her name and goes by Christina), is a divorcee and mother of two college-aged daughters living in a crystal-filled apartment in the flats of Beverly Hills. Since childhood, she says she's been a psychic reader, interpreting the stars for boldface names (just as she once did for Allen, who was not impressed). One paid psychic client, the late Pop Minimalist artist Patrick Nagel, gifted her the original piece above her living room sofa. It's here, with a portfolio of her yellowed and brittle modeling photos in hand, that Engelhardt travels into her past.
Open and thoughtful, Engelhardt unspools a life story that took root in a strict German immigrant household and blossomed into a Zelig-esque series of adventures as she attempted to break into modeling: partying with Iman, jet-setting with Adnan Khashoggi, dining with Stephen King, working as a personal assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire financier later convicted for soliciting an underage girl. Following her time with Allen, she went on to become a platonic muse to Federico Fellini during the auteur's late-life journeys in Rome and Tulum, Mexico, then spent years tending to egos as a hostess in the executive dining room at Paramount before landing her current gig, working as an assistant for producer Bob Evans. What's made her attractive to these powerful men, both personally and professionally, she posits, is in part what Allen appreciated in the first place: "I was pretty enough, I was smart enough, I was non-confrontational, I was non-judgmental, I was discreet, and nothing shocks me."
She's already written, and kept private, two volumes of unpublished memoirs, one focusing on her Fellini years, the other on her time with Allen. In the latter, Engelhardt portrays a relationship of unequals. From their first rendezvous (quizzing her on the meaning of life, challenging her to a chess match, inviting her to watch a basketball game in his TV room, making out with her), terms were decreed by Allen. She considered him then, and still considers him now, a Great Man. She pushed back little if at all.
"I was a pleaser, agreeable," says Engelhardt, a fan of Allen long before they met. "Knowing he was a director, I didn't argue. I was coming from a place of devotion." They operated under two key unspoken rules: There'd be zero discussion about his work, and — owing to the celebrity's presumed necessity for privacy — they could only meet at his place. By her count, on more than 100 subsequent occasions, she'd visit him at his apartment at 930 Fifth Ave., where she'd invariably make her way to an upstairs bedroom facing Central Park.
"The curtains were always drawn," Engelhardt says. "The view must have been spectacular." She shrugs. "I wasn't there for the view."
Another element that may have factored into her dynamic with Allen, Engelhardt muses, was her German background. "I had been taunted, tormented as a 'Nazi child' in the Jewish neighborhood I grew up in: Matawan, New Jersey. [The family moved to a rural area of the state when she was a teenager.] My father ran around in lederhosen. I had doors slammed in my face." Her parents were both postwar emigres, her father — by his account — a 14-year-old ditch-digging conscript into Hitler's army serving near the French border before the end of the war. "Woody's the uber-Jew, and I'm the uber-German," she says. While the pair never discussed their difference, she contends it hovered, at least on her end: "There was a chip on my shoulder about wanting to please those who cast me aside. I wasn't confrontational because I thought, 'Nobody likes Germans.' "
By Engelhardt's recollection, about a year into the relationship, Allen occasionally began bringing in two other "beautiful young ladies" for threesomes. Engelhardt says she had experimented with bisexuality and at times found the experiences with Allen "interesting — a '70s exploration," she says.
But she felt differently when, after they'd been sleeping together for four years, Allen beamingly announced that he wanted to introduce her to his new "girlfriend." (Engelhardt had presumed she was the girlfriend.) It turned out to be Mia Farrow, who was 14 years older and already famous for Rosemary's Baby and The Great Gatsby.
In her manuscript, Engelhardt writes, "I felt sick. I didn't want to be there at all, and yet I couldn't find the courage to get up and leave. To leave would mean an end to all of this. Looking back now, that's exactly what I needed, but back then, the idea of not having Woody in my life at all terrified me. So I sat there, patiently, calmly trying to assess the situation, trying to understand why he wanted the two of us to meet."
Despite the initial shock of jealousy, Engelhardt says she grew to like Farrow over the course of the "handful" of three-way sex sessions that followed at Allen's penthouse as they smoked joints and bonded over a shared fondness for animals. ("When Mia was there, we'd talk about astrology, and Woody was forced to listen," she laughs.) Engelhardt writes in her manuscript, "There were times the three of us were together, and it was actually great fun. We enjoyed each other when we were in the moment. She was beautiful and sweet, he was charming and alluring, and I was sexy and becoming more and more sophisticated in this game. It wasn't until after it was done when I really had time to think of how twisted it was when we were together … and how I was little more than a plaything." She continues, "While we were together, the whole thing was a game that was being operated solely by Woody so we never quite knew where we stood."
"I used to think this was a form of mother-father with the two of them," says Engelhardt. "To me, that whole relationship was very Freudian: how I admired them, how he'd already broken me in, how I let that be all right."
As for Farrow, she explains, "I always had the impression that she was doing this because he wanted it." Engelhardt recalls when the story broke about Allen's relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn (now his wife of nearly 21 years). "I felt sorry for Mia," she says. "I thought, 'Didn't Woody have enough 'extra,' with or without her, that the last thing he had to do was to go for something that was totally hers?'
"He had groomed Mia, trained her, to put up with all of this. Now he had no barriers. It was total disrespect." (Farrow declined to comment on this story.)
Soon-Yi Previn Breaks Silence on Woody Allen Sexual Assault Claims, Alleges Years of Abuse by Mia Farrow
"But what's happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust. [Mia] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan as a victim. And a whole new generation is hearing about it when they shouldn't."
6:09 PM PDT 9/16/2018 by Kimberly Nordyke
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Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn
Soon-Yi Previn, wife of filmmaker Woody Allen, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding her husband and his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow and ex-partner Mia Farrow in a story published online Sunday on New York Magazine's website Vulture.
"I was never interested in writing a Mommie Dearest, getting even with Mia — none of that," Previn said in the story. "But what's happened to Woody is so upsetting, so unjust. [Mia] has taken advantage of the #MeToo movement and paraded Dylan as a victim. And a whole new generation is hearing about it when they shouldn't."
Dylan told Vulture in a statement that any implication she was manipulated by mom Mia was "offensive."
"This only serves to revictimize me," Dylan said. "Thanks to my mother, I grew up in a wonderful home."
Dylan's brother Ronan, one of her strongest supporters, issued the following statement in response to the story: "I owe everything I am to Mia Farrow. She is a devoted mom who went through hell for her family all while creating a loving home for us. But that has never stopped Woody Allen and his allies from planting stories that attack and vilify my mother to deflect from my sister’s credible allegation of abuse. As a brother and a son, I’m angry that New York Magazine would participate in this kind of a hit job, written by a longtime admirer and friend of Woody Allen’s. As a journalist, I’m shocked by the lack of care for the facts, the refusal to include eyewitness testimony that would contradict falsehoods in this piece, and the failure to include my sister’s complete responses. Survivors of abuse deserve better."
The Vulture story was written by Daphne Merkin, who notes in the piece that she's been friends with Allen for more than 40 years. An online search yields several stories detailing her close relationship with the filmmaker over the years, noting on her website that her first fan letter was from Allen, telling the New York Times that he once offered her his therapist and telling the New York Post that they "share our Holocaust books." She also gushes over Allen in her book The Fame Lunches, noting that she wrote him a letter in her early 20s and that "I had fixed on [Allen] as my alter ego" and that "he was the perfect non-celebrity for a non-groupie like me."
Dylan also tweeted out a lengthy statement in response to the story:
New York Magazine spokesperson Lauren Starke defended the story earlier in the day, saying: "Soon-Yi Previn is telling her story for the first time, and we hope people will withhold judgment until they have read the feature. Daphne Merkin’s relationship to Woody Allen is disclosed and is a part of the story, as is Soon-Yi’s reason for speaking out now. I would add that Daphne approached Soon-Yi about doing this piece, not vice-versa. We reached out to both Mia and Dylan Farrow for comment; Dylan chose to speak through her representative. The story is transparent about being told from Soon-Yi’s point of view."
Later Sunday, Starke added: "This is a story about Soon-Yi Previn, and puts forward her perspective on what happened in her family. We believe she is entitled to be heard. Daphne Merkin’s relationship to Woody Allen is disclosed and is a part of the story, as is Soon-Yi’s reason for speaking out now. We hope people will read it for themselves."
In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in December, Dylan accused Allen of sexually molesting her as a child. Allen has denied those claims and an investigation in 1993 found that he had not sexually assaulted her. But at a 1993 custody ruling, a judge said that while "we will probably never know what occurred on August 4, 1992 ... Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was grossly inappropriate and ... measures must be taken to protect her.” Dylan was removed from Allen's custody.
In May, Allen's adoptive son Moses defended Allen against Dylan's allegations and claimed their mother, Mia, was physically and emotionally abusive. Previn has also claimed that Mia was abusive.
Dylan's brother Ronan then came to his mom Mia's defense on social media, writing: "Not worth saying much to dignify the repeated campaign to discredit my sister, often by attacking our mother. This happens every time Dylan speaks, so this is all I’ll offer: My mother did an extraordinary job raising us, and none of my siblings with whom I’ve spoken ever witnessed anything but love and care from a single mom who went through hell to keep her kids safe."
Allen and many other of his family supporters claim that Mia manipulated Dylan into making false sexual assault allegations as payback.
Previn, who was adopted by Farrow and then-husband Andre Previn in 1978, began a romantic relationship with Allen in 1991. At the time, Allen was still in a long-term relationship with Farrow. Soon-Yi and Allen later married in 1997.
"I am a pariah," Allen told Vulture. "People think that I was Soon-Yi's father, that I raped and married my underaged, retarded daughter." He added that the couple's contribution to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was returned.
Previn went into depth about her relationship with Allen and history with Mia in the Vulture story.
Previn claims that she and Mia were "like oil and water" from the beginning. "Mia wasn't maternal to me from the get-go," she said.
She claimed that Mia's first attempt at bathing Previn didn't go well.
"I'd never taken a bath by myself, because in the orphanage it was a big tub and we all got in it," Previn said. "Here, it was for a single person, and I was scared to get in the water by myself. So instead of doing what you would do with an infant — you know, maybe get into the water, put some toys in, put your arm in to show that you're fine, it's not dangerous — she just kind of threw me in."
She also claimed there was a "hierarchy" among Mia's children: "She didn't try to hide it, and Fletcher was the star, the golden child. Mia always valued intelligence and also looks, blond hair and blue eyes."
Previn alleged that Mia tried teaching her the alphabet and got impatient to the point of throwing wooden blocks "at me or down on the floor. Who can learn under that pressure?"
Previn also claimed that Mia would write words on her arm to help her learn them or "tip me upside down, holding me by my feet, to get the blood to drain to my head. Because she thought — or she read it, God knows where she came up with the notion — that blood going to my head would make me smarter or something."
Previn also alleged that Mia would slap her face, spank her with a hairbrush, throw objects at her and call her "stupid" and "moronic." She also said that she and her adopted sisters were treated like "domestics," doing the grocery shopping, cleaning, ironing and other chores.
Asked if she has any positive memories of living with Mia, Previn said: "It seems hard to imagine, but I really can't come up with one."
Previn also goes into detail on how she began her relationship with Allen, noting that they were both consenting adults (she was 21).
She said she never thought of Allen as a father figure — Andre served that purpose, in her mind — and actually thought he was a "major loser" due to the fact that Mia proposed marriage just weeks after they began dating and then two weeks later told him she wanted to have a child with him.
The two first interacted in a friendly capacity when she broke her ankle in 11th grade and he was helpful in taking care of her. But it wasn't until she was a freshman at college that they began their affair.
"We talked quite a bit," she explained, "and to the best of my memory I came in from college on some holiday and he showed me a Bergman movie, which I believe was The Seventh Seal, but I'm not positive. We chatted about it, and I must have been impressive because he kissed me and I think that started it. We were like two magnets, very attracted to each other."
She added: "I wasn't the one who went after Woody — where would I get the nerve? He pursued me. That's why the relationship has worked: I felt valued. It's quite flattering for me. He's usually a meek person, and he took a big leap."
Mia eventually learned of their affair when she found nude photos of Previn.
"I remember the phone call when she found the photos," Previn said. "I picked up the phone and Mia said, 'Soon-Yi.' That's all she needed to say, in that chilling tone of voice. I knew my life was over and that she knew, just by the way she said my name. When she came home, she asked me about it, and I — survival instinct — denied it. And then she said, 'I have photos.' So I knew I was trapped. Of course, she slapped me, you know the way of things. And then she called everyone. She didn't contain the situation; she just spread it like wildfire, and then she was screaming at Woody when he came over. Meanwhile, Dylan and Satchel [Ronan] are living under her roof and they are very small, 6 and 4 years old. They hear their mother going crazy, screaming in the middle of the night for hours."
Previn and Allen claimed that Mia was claiming that Previn was threatening suicide, which Previn said was a lie.
Allen's sister, Letty Aronson, claimed to Vulture that Mia told her around the time that she discovered Allen and Previn were having an affair: "'He took my daughter, I'm going to take his.' I said, 'Don't be ridiculous. [Dylan] loves Woody. A child should have a father.' She said, 'I don't care.'"
Meanwhile, Dylan late Sunday tweeted a statement on behalf of her and several of her siblings defending and standing behind Mia:
Mia is not quoted in the story, and Andre declined comment.
The Allen sexual assault scandal heated up after The Hollywood Reporter published a cover story on Allen in May 2016 and gained steam amid the #MeToo movement late last year. After THR posted its cover story, Dylan's brother Ronan Farrow wrote about the scandal for THR and the media's lack of attention to it.
Ronan went on to publish exposés of Harvey Weinstein and Leslie Moonves, alleging histories of sexual harassment and assault, leading to both executives' ousters.
Meanwhile, Allen also addressed rumors in the Vulture story that Ronan is the son of Mia's ex-husband Frank Sinatra, something Mia has not confirmed or denied. "In my opinion, he’s my child," Allen said. "I think he is, but I wouldn’t bet my life on it. I paid for child support for him for his whole childhood, and I don’t think that’s very fair if he’s not mine. Also she represented herself as a faithful person, and she certainly wasn’t. Whether she actually became pregnant in an affair she had ..."
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