In 2015, Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn went on a trip to Washington, D.C. With the help of their friend Jeffrey Epstein, they were able to tour the White House.
Mr. Allen’s friendship with Epstein has been known for years, but e-mails in the huge trove of records released by the Justice Department in recent days illustrate that relationship in new depth.
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The filmmaker, his wife and Epstein were neighbours in New York City, and the three dined together often, records show. They offered each other emotional support during periods when they were being criticised in the media. They commiserated about being accused — unfairly, they told each other — of sexual misconduct.
And in 2015, Epstein used his connections to another friend who had been in President Barack Obama’s administration to help the couple get a White House tour.
“Could you show Soon-Yi the White House?” Epstein wrote in a May 2015 e-mail to former White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler. “I assume woody would be too politically sensitive?” he said.
“I am sure I could show both of them the White House,” Ms. Ruemmler responded, although she doubted whether Epstein, who in 2008 had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, would be allowed in.
“You are too politically sensitive, I think,” she added.
White House records show that Mr. Allen, Ms. Previn and Ms. Ruemmler visited on December 27, a Sunday. Obama was in Hawaii at the time.
Ms. Ruemmler and Mr. Allen were among a long list of notable people who maintained friendships with Epstein for years, even though he was a registered sex offender who had been accused of abusing children, and whose legal problems had been widely covered in newspapers.
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Some of the guests who accompanied Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn to dinners with Epstein included talk show host Dick Cavett, linguist Noam Chomsky and the late comedian David Brenner. Epstein also attended screenings of Mr. Allen’s movies and, according to e-mails, would visit with Mr. Allen so he could watch him edit his latest film.
“Wide variety of interesting people at every dinner,” was how Mr. Allen described some of their gatherings in a letter commissioned for a 2016 Epstein birthday party. “It’s always interesting, and the food is sumptuous and abundant. Lots of dishes, plenty of choices, numerous desserts, well served. I say well served often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women reminding one of Castle Dracula where (actor Bela) Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place,” he said.
A message sent to an assistant for Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn via e-mail seeking comment was not immediately returned. Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
E-mails suggest that Ms. Previn, too, had a close relationship to Epstein, and she often served as the intermediary between Epstein and Mr. Allen.
Numerous exchanges among Mr. Allen, Ms. Previn and Epstein refer to the scandals that began in the early 1990s when Mr. Allen acknowledged he was having an affair with Ms. Previn, the adopted daughter of his then-girlfriend Mia Farrow. Around the same time, he was investigated by State authorities over allegations he had assaulted their adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, while visiting Mia’s Connecticut home.
A Connecticut prosecutor said in 1993 that there was “probable cause” to charge Mr. Allen with molesting Dylan, but that he decided not to pursue the case.
Mr. Allen, who married Ms. Previn in 1997 and has since adopted two daughters, has denied any wrongdoing. Dylan’s allegations returned to the news in 2014 when an open letter from her was published in The New York Times. Mr. Allen has since been largely ostracised by the American film community.
In e-mails in 2016, Epstein, Ms. Previn and Mr. Allen compared their own scandals to another celebrity in the news at the time: Bill Cosby, who had denied allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulting numerous women.
“The crowd needs a witch to burn, and there are not many left,” Epstein wrote.
Mr. Allen replied, in a message relayed through Ms. Previn, that his own situation is “radically different” from Cosby’s.
“I do expect (and get) many ugly unfair accusations, (but) he has to battle 50 women and criminal charges,” Mr. Allen said, according to Ms. Previn’s email. “I have one irate mother whose case was investigated and discredited,” he said, referring to Mia Farrow.
Epstein replied that the public scorn Mr. Allen received was more likely related to his relationship with Ms. Previn, which he called a “publicly broken taboo”. “Everything else is noise,” he added.
Mr. Allen, in comments relayed through Ms. Previn, responded that if the couple’s taboo relationship was the issue, “there’s nothing to be done”.
“I’m certainly not going to dump her, and I’m not going to apologise because I don’t feel either of us did anything we have to apologise for,” he says. “Our romantic life is our business and not the business of the public, so it’s a hopeless situation because there’s no way out if that’s what they’re holding against us.”
Epstein advised his friends to just enjoy themselves in life. “Some actors or actresses might decline a role,” Epstein wrote. “But, so what,” he said.
Mr. Allen has not been accused of having any involvement in Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of girls and women.
Published – February 06, 2026 07:33 am IST
