Woody Allen Hit With Rape Joke at His Cannes Film Premiere

Woody Allen's Cafe Society opened the Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, and at the premiere, the master of ceremonies drew gasps from the crowd with one of his comments: "You’ve shot so many of your films here in Europe and yet in the US you haven’t even been convicted of rape," said French comedian Larent Lafitte in an apparent reference to Allen's fellow director Roman Polanski. Blake Lively, one of the stars of the film, told Variety Thursday, "I think any jokes about rape, homophobia, or Hitler is not a joke." But Allen was apparently unbothered: "I am completely in favor of comedians making any jokes they want. I am a non-judgmental or [non]-censorship person on jokes," he told Variety.

Allen also encountered flak at the press conference before the film screened, Page Six reports. A reporter asked why his movies often feature young women in relationships with older men. Allen's response: "What did she say? You know I have hearing aids and I put the microphone over my hearing aids to give me a double shot and it’s still not working." Another reporter asked if Allen ever considered putting a younger man-older woman couple in one of his films: "I wouldn’t hesitate to do that if I had a good idea for a story with a 50-year-old woman and a ­30-year-old man. It’s a perfectly valid comic idea," he said, but noted he had no personal experience "to draw on." (Ronan Farrow also called his father out big-time.)