Woody Allen calls step daughter's abuse claims "disgraceful"

Oscar-winner Woody Allen's representative has called his adopted daughter Dylan's claims of sexual abuse as "disgracefull and untrue".
A representative for the 78-year-old filmmaker issued a brief response to the open letter from Dylan, where she has renewed allegations that her adoptive father sexually abused her when she was seven-year-old, reported People magazine.
"Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon. At the time, a thorough investigation was conducted by court appointed independent experts. The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation," the representative said.
In a statement to Mother Jones, Allen's attorney Elkan Abramowitz said the allegations were engineered by "a vengeful lover" (Farrow).

"It is tragic that after 20 years a story engineered by a vengeful lover resurfaces after it was fully vetted and rejected by independent authorities. The one to blame for Dylan's distress is neither Dylan nor Woody Allen," he said.
Dylan, now 28, in her open letter narrated her alleged abuse and how it affected her life while slamming Hollywood for continuing to promote Allen.

"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me," she wrote in the letter.

Allen, 78, and Dylan's mother Mia Farrow, 68, dated for 12-years and adopted Dylan and her brother Moses in 1987.
Farrow broke up with Allen after finding out that he was having an affair with her and ex-husband Andre Previn's adopted daughter Soon-Yi, whom Allen went on to marry later.
A custody battle followed for the children in 1992 where Farrow filed charges of molestation against Allen, saying he sexually abused Dylan but the case was later dropped.
The controversy resurfaced last year when Farrow in a Vanity Fair interview claimed that her and Allen's only biological child Ronan was "possibly" fathered by ex-husband Frank Sinatra.

Ronan, who is estranged from his filmmaker-father, refreshed abuse allegations last month while Allen was being honoured with the Cecil B DeMille award at the Golden Globes.
Allen, who has been nominated 24 times for the Academy Awards and won four Oscars, is in the race again for writing his critically acclaimed film 'Blue Jasmine'.