Allen Agonistes

At the 1992 Republican Convention, Newt Gingrich hurled the nastiest salvo he could think of toward Bill Clinton, saying that the allegedly libidinous governor of Arkansas had “Woody Allen family values” (in stark contrast to Garth Brooks’s televised eulogy for Jimmy Stewart: “Leave it to Jimmy Stewart to have a traditional American family right in the middle of Hollywood”). Allen’s romance with young Soon-Yi Previn left a permanent scar on his otherwise idealized world of glamoro...