EW YORK -- But how will it affect his career?
EW YORK -- But how will it affect his career?
This, rather than questions of ethical propriety or a spontaneous outpouring of wedding felicitations, seemed to be the most visceral reaction of many in New York -- a city notorious for its career-driven populace -- on learning from newspapers and broadcasters Wednesday that Woody Allen had married Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former lover, Mia Farrow.
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Friends, naturally, portrayed the marriage positively.
"This wedding will help his head as well as his career," said Elaine Kaufman, proprietor of the celebrity restaurant Elaine's, who has known the director for decades. "He's clearing up any question that anybody might have about Soon-Yi."
Allen "is happier than I've ever seen him," said Ms. Kaufman, who spent time with him several weeks ago when he shot a scene for his next movie, "Celebrity," at her restaurant.
But others were less charitable. "I think his film career is flirting with real trouble," said Raoul Lionel Felder, the Manhattan divorce lawyer. "People seem to have accepted the fact that the two were living together as one more sick relationship in a sick world. But now the idea of a wedding will infringe on moviegoers' sense of propriety."
The marriage is Ms. Previn's first; Allen was previously married to Harlen Rosen and the actress Louise Lasser.
The couple exchanged I do's in a private ceremony with a small group of friends and family members at Palazzo Cavalli, the Venice city hall, on Tuesday afternoon. Officiating was the city's bearded mayor, Massimo Cacciari, a published philosopher and intellectual gadabout who could easily be a character in a Woody Allen film. And now possibly will be.
After the wedding, the happy couple were hounded down the serpentine streets of the city by paparazzi and television crews, and then traveled on to Paris. "I have nothing much to say," Allen commented when brought to ground.
They were married Tuesday "because the timing felt right for them," said Leslee Dart, Allen's longtime publicity agent. "He's just finished a movie; she's ready to graduate." She added that Soon-Yi expected to receive a master's degree in special education from Columbia University in the spring.
Felder and others saw the decision to marry Soon-Yi as evidence of a new, more publicly assertive Allen, as demonstrated in his newest film, "Deconstructing Harry." The movie is a brazenly autobiographical comedy in which the character played by Allen, the self-serving Harry Block, wreaks havoc among those around him. He is a far cry from Allen's traditional screen persona, the fey, self-deprecating schlemiel.
Allen's long-standing love affair with Ms. Previn seems to have coincided with his longstanding love affair with Venice. The city itself was a character in "Everyone Says I Love You," Allen's 1996 film. For the last five years or so, Mr. Allen has spent Christmas and New Year's there, and was for awhile rumored to be buying a palazzo on the Grand Canal.
"He has done a lot for the image of Venice," said Cristiano Chiarot, press officer for the 18th-century Fenice opera house there. Chiarot said Allen and the mayor of Venice had become friends during restoration efforts for the Fenice, before its destruction by fire in January 1996. Allen threw himself into the cause to raise money for the restoration.
Soon-Yi was 8 years old when adopted by Ms. Farrow and the conductor Andre Previn during a trip to Korea.
Ms. Farrow, who starred in many of Allen's films, was his companion for more than a decade, although, as Allen has pointed out, the couple never lived together, and spent their nights at separate homes. In 1992, the relationship between her adopted daughter and Allen came to light when she discovered nude pictures of Ms. Previn, who was then 21, in Allen's apartment.
The messy aftermath centered on a bitter custody battle for Satchel, the biological son of Ms. Farrow and Allen, and their adopted daughter, Dylan.
During the custody case, Ms. Farrow accused Allen of fondling Dylan. Allen was cleared of all charges, but he was barred from unsupervised visits with the children, whose names have been changed to Seamus and Eliza.
John Springer, a spokesman for Ms. Farrow, said that "of course Mia wouldn't dignify this event with a comment."
The director's marriage to Ms. Previn has produced a convoluted skein of Allen-Farrow relationships that have echoes of family life in a L'il Abner cartoon. For example, two of Soon-Yi's siblings, Seamus and Eliza, have now become her stepchildren.
"After all the problems he's had with the Irish colleen, you'd think he'd go for a nice Jewish girl," said the comedian Phyllis Diller, who has known Allen for 35 years. "But no, he goes for the shiksa."
Moviegoers may be more willing to accept a married Allen, said former Mayor Edward I. Koch. "Like many, I had trouble with the fact that people thought that she was his unofficial stepdaughter," he said. "But with the passage of time, I don't feel that anymore. And I think this marriage will play well."
He added, "Who knows, maybe this marriage means that Woody Allen can get off the psychiatrist's couch."
Others offered chronological analysis. "She's too old for him," said Tony Randall, 77, who is currently starring in "The Sunshine Boys" on Broadway and whose wife, Heather, is 27.
"Will people care? Maybe," said Donni Aron, a Rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College who strolled Wednesday among holiday shoppers on West Fourth Street. "But not as much in New York."
Ms. Kaufman predicted that the marriage would last. But Felder was less sanguine about the future. "I think they're a little like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor," he said. "They're basically trapped with each other, and they'll forever be drifting through time."