One of Woody Allen's favourite actors has defended the director amid accusations he molested his adopted daughter when she was seven.
Wallace Shawn says he cannot believe Allen is the monster Dylan Farrow has depicted in a scathing online blog.
Farrow stunned Hollywood earlier this month when she opened up for the first time about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of her father in a New York Times column.
Allen, his representatives and Farrow's brother have responded to the "disgusting" accusations, insisting that Dylan, who first made the claims during her parents' bitter split in 1992, has her facts wrong.
Shawn, who has appeared in many of Allen's films including Manhattan and Radio Days, tells the Los Angeles Times: "Like so many of those who have worked with him (Allen) repeatedly over the decades, I've found him to be not merely thoughtful, serious and honest, but extraordinary and even inspiring in his thoughtfulness, seriousness and honesty.
"Of the people I've known, he's one of those I've respected most ... and for that reason, I personally would have to say that it would take overwhelming evidence to convince me that he had sexually abused a child, just as it would take overwhelming evidence to convince me that Desmond Tutu, Franklin D. Roosevelt or Doris Lessing had sexually abused a child."
Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations, and his lawyer Elkin Abramowitz recently suggested that the idea Dylan had been molested was "implanted" in her head by her mother, Allen's ex Mia Farrow.
