Woody Allen Sues Producer For Profits

May 11, 2001 -- Woody Allen, the Oscar-winning comic andfilmmaker, has sued former friend and producer Jean Doumanian,charging that she cheated him out of profits from the last eightmovies they made together.

Allen says in papers filed late Wednesday in Manhattan's StateSupreme Court that Doumanian and her production company haverefused to give him regular and accurate financial informationabout his films' earnings.

Doumanian heads Sweetland Films, which financed the eightmovies. Only the production agreement for their first three movies,dated Aug. 1, 1993, is in writing, court papers say. Agreements forthe other five were oral and based on the contract for the firstthree, court papers say.

Celebrity and Crooks

The movies are: Bullets Over Broadway, 1994; MightyAphrodite; 1995; Everyone Says I Love You, 1996;Deconstructing Harry, 1997; Wild Man Blues, 1997;Celebrity, 1998; Sweet and Lowdown, 1999; and "Small TimeCrooks, 2000.

Despite Sam Goldwyn's cautionary dictum that an oral agreementisn't worth the paper it's written on, oral agreements areenforceable if their existence can be proved to a judge'ssatisfaction.

The agreements, court papers say, call for Allen's company,Moses Productions Inc., to receive half the "adjusted grossproceeds" Sweetland gets from the distribution or otherexploitation of the films.

Allen's court papers say that because Doumanian has given himand his company no financial information, he is unsure how much sheowes him. He cut business ties with her in March 2000 to sign withDreamWorks SKG.

"Defendants have provided Moses with nothing more than asingle, incomplete, cursory, wholly insufficient statement" which"contained numerous inaccuracies and was in material respectsfalse and misleading," according to Allen's court papers.

Doumanian Saddened, Denies Allegations

Dan Klores, Doumanian's spokesman, said, "Jean is saddened thather longtime friend has chosen this course. The allegations arefalse. She is superbly confident that she will prevail, and shelooks forward to demonstrating to the court that Woody Allen hasbeen paid everything he is entitled to."

Besides Doumanian, the lawsuit names Sweetland and Jacqui Safra,Doumanian's longtime companion, as defendants. Court papers saySafra helps Doumanian run her various businesses and receivedexecutive producer credit in Allen's movies under the pseudonym"J.E. Beaucaire."

Allen's lawyer, Michael P. Zweig, refused to talk about thelawsuit.

Allen, 65, won directing and screenplay Oscars for 1977'sAnnie Hall and a screenplay Oscar for 1986's Hannah and HerSisters.