A Filmmaker, a Financier, and a Very Awkward Dinner Party
If you thought Woody Allen was going to quietly promote his new novel and fade into the background of literary circles, think again. The 89-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker, known for Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters, has instead added a new—and eyebrow-raising—chapter to his legacy: Jeffrey Epstein dinner guest.
In a sit-down with The Sunday Times to plug What’s with Baum?, Allen casually revealed that he and his wife Soon-Yi Previn once became “friendly” with Epstein through a series of dinner parties at the disgraced financier’s New York townhouse. According to Allen, a well-connected publicist extended the first invitation, assuring them the guest list would sparkle. And sparkle it did—with Prince Andrew among the attendees.
Allen’s recollection? “He couldn’t have been nicer.” Which, depending on how you define “nice,” is not exactly the quote his publicist probably wanted leading headlines.
The First Dinner: December 2010
The timeline matters here. Allen says the first soirée took place in December 2010, just months after Epstein was released from prison and house arrest for procuring an underage girl for prostitution.
“There were about twenty people there, and we knew a lot of them from show business,” Allen explained. “I don’t want to say who.”
Of course, others have admitted to attending similar gatherings: Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Charlie Rose, Chelsea Handler. The kind of dinner party guest list that could make even Vanity Fair blush.
According to Allen, everyone seemed to embrace Epstein like an old friend, which gave the impression that this was all perfectly acceptable society behavior. “We figured, ‘OK, he’s a substantial character,’” Allen said.
Epstein’s Pitch: Philanthropist in Rehab
Allen insists that Epstein, fresh out of prison, worked hard to charm his new circle. “He told us he’d been in jail and that he had been— I can’t remember the word—but that he’d been falsely put in jail in some way.”
This is the PR move of the century: convicted sex offender turned misunderstood victim turned high-society philanthropist. Epstein, Allen says, tried to rebuild his image by surrounding himself with intellectuals, scientists, and entertainers.
“We would go and there was always a table of illustrious people,” Allen recalled. “College professors, scientists, Nobel laureates—accomplished people who were fun to listen to.”
There were themed evenings too: comedians one night, magicians the next. David Blaine apparently swallowed and regurgitated live goldfish at one of these gatherings, because nothing says “post-prison rebrand” like sleight-of-hand meets questionable animal tricks.
The Allen Disclaimer: No Underage Girls
In an almost defensive add-on, Allen insisted that he never witnessed Epstein with minors.
“We never, ever, saw Jeffrey with underage girls. He always had a girlfriend but never an underage girlfriend.”
It’s a line that reads like a lawyerly footnote—carefully rehearsed, delivered with just enough distance. To many, the very act of continuing to attend dinners at Epstein’s home after his conviction feels like complicity, whether or not Allen saw misconduct firsthand.
Where Was Ghislaine?
Allen also stressed that he never met Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidante now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
“She was never at any of the dinners,” he said.
This detail seems almost designed to shield him further from association with Epstein’s inner circle. Still, the optics are… well, you can fill in the word.
The Aftermath: Epstein’s Second Arrest
Allen’s dinners with Epstein appear to have faded out long before the financier’s 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. That case ended with Epstein’s death in a New York jail cell, officially ruled a suicide but still the subject of endless conspiracy theories.
Allen, meanwhile, is left trying to explain why he thought it was acceptable to accept repeat dinner invitations from a man already convicted of sex crimes.
Celebrity Culture and the Normalization of the “Unacceptable”
The bigger story here isn’t just Woody Allen’s questionable RSVP etiquette. It’s about how celebrity culture normalizes power. When Epstein hosted, he wasn’t some pariah eating takeout alone—he was dining with TV anchors, comedians, royals, even Nobel Prize winners.
In elite social circles, the logic seems to have been: “If they’re here, it must be fine.” The safety of numbers, the illusion of legitimacy. Allen’s remarks show exactly how the veneer of respectability was manufactured and maintained.
This isn’t unique to Epstein either. Hollywood and political elites have always orbited figures with wealth and influence, no matter how dubious. It’s how a disgraced financier could convince otherwise savvy guests that swallowing goldfish was more memorable than his prison record.
Why Woody Is Talking Now
So why dredge this up now? Allen is 89. He’s promoting a new book. He knows controversy sells.
By retelling these dinners with a shrug, he positions himself as the naïve guest, swept along by showbiz peers who were all attending anyway. It’s a way to reframe his involvement: not as complicity, but as context. “Everyone was there. We didn’t know.”
Yet the irony is that these excuses are exactly why Epstein was able to maintain access to powerful circles even after a conviction. Nobody wanted to leave the party, so they convinced themselves it was fine to stay.
The Hollywood Legacy Problem
Allen’s Epstein anecdotes are also part of a bigger narrative about legacy. Like many artists with personal controversies (Allen himself has faced decades of allegations), the question becomes: can you separate the work from the person?
For Allen, the Epstein story complicates that separation. He isn’t just a filmmaker promoting a novel—he’s someone who kept dining with one of the most infamous criminals of our time, brushing it off as “he couldn’t have been nicer.”
Final Curtain Call
At the end of the day, Woody Allen’s revelation feels less like a scandalous bombshell and more like an unintentional case study in how reputations get laundered.
Epstein didn’t operate in the shadows; he operated in plain sight, at dinner tables where comedians performed, where Nobel laureates gave lectures, where royals clinked glasses.
And Woody Allen, of all people, is now reminding us of that uncomfortable truth.
Hollywood may love a redemption arc, but not every dinner party deserves an encore.