An interview with Woody Allen was slashed from a landmark documentary about Manhattan’s historic Carlyle Hotel over fears that the scandal-struck filmmaker would damage the movie.
Sources told Page Six that Allen — whose Monday-night jazz performances at the hotel have become an Upper East Side institution — sat down to talk to filmmaker Matthew Miele for his new film “Always at the Carlyle.”
But the chat was cut at the last minute because the sexual assault allegations made against Allen by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow made him a controversial figure amid the #MeToo movement. (He’s denied the allegations.)
Miele confirmed to Page Six that the Allen interview, filmed in the famed Cafe Carlyle cabaret joint, made it into the movie’s rough cut, but investors told him early this year that Allen should be cut out.
Miele told us, “I can’t put my finger on who got skittish about it, but I’m only the director — not the people who put the money up.” He added, “It’s a shame because [Allen is] an elusive guy and he gave us the interview, and it’s just sitting on the cutting room floor.”
Other star interviews in the film include hotel regulars George Clooney, Naomi Campbell, Tommy Lee Jones, Wes Anderson, and Allen’s fellow Café Carlyle performers, the late Elaine Stritch, Steve Tyrell, Alexa Ray Joel, Alan Cumming, Isaac Mizrahi, Rita Wilson and John Pizzarelli.
Footage of Allen — who shot a scene for “Hannah and Her Sisters” at the 5-star hotel — performing appears briefly in the doc, and his name is mentioned a few times by others in interviews.
This story originally appeared in the New York Post.