Firth rebukes Woody Allen over daughter's molestation claims

Woody Allen faced widening isolation yesterday over allegations that he molested his daughter more than 25 years ago, after Colin Firth joined the list of actors saying he would not work with the director again.

Allen's estranged, adopted daughter Dylan Farrow has revived claims that he sexually assaulted her as a seven-year-old in 1992, asking the world to finally believe her as the sexual harassment watershed convulses America.

On Thursday, Farrow aired her first television interview as 82-year-old Allen hit back, accusing his ex-lover's family of "cynically" exploiting the Time's Up movement to repeat "discredited" allegations.

After the interview broadcast, Oscar-winning Firth became the latest actor and arguably the most high-profile to publicly rebuke Allen, telling the Guardian newspaper: "I wouldn't work with him again."

Firth starred in Allen's 2014 film "Magic in the Moonlight," shot before Farrow detailed the alleged abuse for the first time in her own words in an open letter published on a New York Times blog in 2014.

Her claim first surfaced in the midst of her parents' bitter split, when Allen left the actress Mia Farrow for her adoptive daughter from a previous marriage, Soon-Yi Previn, 21 years old at the time.

Allen -- the director of more than 50 movies, a four-times Oscar winner and showered with awards in Europe -- has always denied the allegations, which have never been proven. He continues to enjoy a glittering career and remains married to Soon-Yi.

But the sexual harassment firestorm that has brought down Hollywood titans such as Harvey Weinstein, has seen many reassess Farrow's claims and has fueled a growing backlash against Allen.

In recent weeks, actresses including Greta Gerwig, Rebecca Hall, Ellen Page and Mira Sorvino, have announced they regret working with Allen.

Oscar-winner Natalie Portman also told Oprah Winfrey in a televised interview with other actresses that she believed Farrow.

"He's lying and he's been lying for so long," Farrow told "CBS This Morning" in the interview that aired Thursday, breaking down into tears when watching a clip of Allen denying the alleged assault.

Now a 32-year-old married mother of a young girl, Farrow said in retrospect she wished the case had gone to trial.

"Honestly, yes. I do wish that they had," she told CBS. A Connecticut state prosecutor at the time found probable cause to charge Allen but thought Farrow too fragile to face a celebrity trial.