Woody Allen

HarperCollins U.K. has made an offer for the British rights for Woody Allen's yet-unwritten memoirs, a spokeswoman said Friday at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Allen's agents have been shopping the book fair in Germany to gauge interest in the definitive life story of the film director and actor best known for his neurotic characters. The status of the much-coveted U.S. rights was not immediately clear, although the New York Post reported that bidding was climbing after Allen rejected a $1.

If you ever wondered where some of the inspirations for early "Saturday Night Live" came from, take a good look at two MGM Double Feature laser disc packages ($40 each) featuring four of Woody Allen's funniest films--"Love and Death" (1975) paired with "Bananas" (1971) and "Stardust Memories" (1980) with "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" (1972).

THIS WEEK'S MOVIES Could the most intellectually mature and morally challenging film of 1989 also be one of that year's funniest? Check out Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (Orion, $89.98, PG-13) and see.

Play it again, Woody. Hollywood's Attic Theatre is about to present its second annual Woody Allen one-act play. Last summer, Allen's "God" had a successful run there. Now comes the companion piece, "Death" (1975), opening Friday. "Kleinman is your classic Woody Allen schlemiel character," explained Attic artistic director James Carey. "He's awakened one night by a gang of vigilantes in search of a murdering fiend who's knocking off 6 to 12 people a night.

Reporting from Toronto — Woody Allen will turn 75 this December, but the prolific clip at which he makes and releases films, roughly one every year for the last 30 years, would daunt many men half his age. "I don't sense it as a maintained pace," Allen said recently in Toronto, where he spent less than one full day to mark the screening of his latest project, "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," at the Toronto International Film...

The best place for Woody Allen to set his movies is really the contemporary scene. Is there anyone better at exposing the jangled psyche of America's urbanites trying to make it through the 20th Century? Allen found his milieu with "Annie Hall" in 1977 and has rarely looked back since. Oh, he's strayed a generation or two ("Zelig" and "Radio Days" come to mind), but he usually returns to a more modern time to express his unique mix of neurotic humor and insight.

Woody Allen pledged his support Thursday for Democratic mayoral candidate David N. Dinkins and said that Jackie Mason, a fellow comedian, got a "raw deal" when he was banished from the campaign of Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani. Giuliani, who is Dinkins' principal opponent in the November election, jettisoned Mason as a key ambassador to New York's Jewish community last month because of controversial remarks made by Mason.

It is Monday night in Michael's Pub in the East 50s and the red velvet rope is up. As he has for 15 years on every Monday night when he can possibly make it, the unsalaried clarinet player is sitting in with the semi-pro combo that includes an ad executive and a New York City detective.

Woody Allen has never seen David Letterman. He's never been in a shopping mall. He eats dinner out 360 nights a year and he thinks "Blue Velvet" was the best movie of 1986. Those and many other astonishing facts can be found in two current cover stories on America's favorite media-shy neurotic. In Esquire, media critic Tom Shales gets pretty rough with Allen in his essay/interview.

Mickey Rose was a childhood friend of Woody Allen, sharing his pal's fervent enthusiasms for baseball, jazz and movies and later becoming the young filmmaker's writing partner for his early, madcap comedies "Bananas" and "Take the Money and Run. " Rose, who went on to become a television comedy writer, penning jokes and sketches for Johnny Carson, Sid Caesar and other top comedians and shows of his era, died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills....