January 24, 2012. Jeffrey Epstein creates a to-do item in Apple Mail.1
"Will Scarlett Johansson come w/Woody on Sunday?"
That's the full text. No context needed. A convicted sex offender is tracking whether one of the world's most famous actresses will attend a social event at his home — and the intermediary is Woody Allen.
The day before, Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff had confirmed the ask was in motion:2
"Kathryn, Woody's assistant, says Woody put a call in to Scarlett Johansson but doubts she'll be able to come because she's working...but if it turns out she can attend she'll let us know."
Woody Allen personally called Scarlett Johansson — who had starred in three of his films — to invite her to a registered sex offender's home. His assistant also confirmed she'd "get an update on the Paris trip from Soon-Yi." International travel was being coordinated through the same channels.
Johansson apparently didn't come that Sunday. The to-do item is marked "incomplete."
But Allen did. Again and again and again.
The Count
The unsealed documents contain over 100 calendar entries, dinner invitations, scheduling emails, flight records, and iMessage logs connecting Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen between 2011 and 2019. Every single one is post-conviction.
This wasn't a casual acquaintance caught in an awkward photo. This was infrastructure.
Allen and Soon-Yi Previn dined at Epstein's 71st Street mansion so regularly that Epstein's chef sent menus to Soon-Yi for approval in advance.3 Allen's assistant Kathryn Sigismund was in direct contact with Groff for scheduling. The two households operated like a joint social calendar.
| Year | Selected Events |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Dress rehearsal, Relatively Speaking at Brooks Atkinson, dinners with Soon-Yi |
| 2012 | Scarlett Johansson ask, premiere of To Rome With Love, dinners with Bobby Slayton |
| 2013 | Grand dinners with Lewis Black + Dick Cavett + David Blaine, Christmas flight to Zorro Ranch |
| 2014 | Bullets Over Broadway, Magic in the Moonlight premiere, Hitchcock "editing lesson," Peter Thiel dinner |
| 2015 | Dinner with Noam Chomsky, ranch visits |
| 2016 | Allen family flies to Zorro Ranch, dinner with Chomsky |
| 2017 | Julie Taymor dinner, Dick Cavett joins, Weinstein article sent to Soon-Yi |
| 2018 | iMessage records, Reid Hoffman breakfast / Woody Allen dinner same day |
| 2019 | Groff coordinates with "Woody(Soon Yi)," Allen on Bannon emergency list 6 days before arrest |
Eight years. Post-conviction. Post-registration. The relationship didn't survive his arrest — it began after it.
The Bait
Epstein didn't just enjoy Woody Allen's company. He deployed him.
The documents reveal a pattern: Epstein dangled Allen before powerful targets as a social lure, the way a headhunter might offer courtside seats. Except the host was on the sex offender registry.
Peter Thiel. September 8, 2014. Epstein emails:4
"any interest in woody allen"
Thiel replies: "Would be cool to meet him sometime, but don't go out of the way to make this happen..."
Epstein lays out the full package:
"13th afternoon you and I. then bill burns. the diplomat's diplomat. evening dinner with woody all casual.. if you choose we can bring in kathy ruemmler. former obama counsel."
Woody Allen, a former CIA Director, and Obama's White House Counsel — offered as a single evening's entertainment for the co-founder of PayPal.
Reid Hoffman. March 2014. Epstein emails Hoffman and Joi Ito:5
"woody allen is currently in san fran and if you like we could have dinner monday, i will fly him back to the ranch."
He offered to fly Woody Allen across the country by private jet to dangle him in front of a Silicon Valley billionaire. Hoffman's reply: "happy to meet Woody but would like first to focus on getting to know you and intellectual conversation." He didn't need Allen. He was already all in.
Bill Gates. February 2013. A guest list assembled "for bill" included: "Panetta, Woody Allen, Ban Ki Moon, Gergen" — and in the same breath — "victoria secret models?"6 The Secretary General of the United Nations and Woody Allen served the same function as Victoria's Secret models: items on a menu, assembled for a billionaire's visit.
Larry Summers. February 2013. Summers, his wife Lisa, and Woody Allen flew together on Epstein's private jet N909JE from Teterboro to Palm Beach.7 Staff coordinated the logistics through Woody Allen's office.
Five years later, Summers was confiding in Epstein about an extramarital affair with a 35-year-old woman. He wanted to know if she could be "presentable" — for dinner with Woody Allen.8
The Editing Lesson
October 24, 2014. Woody Allen gives what Epstein's calendar calls an "Editing Lesson" at the 71st Street mansion.
Allen screens Hitchcock's Psycho. The guest list:
- Alex Black — Leon Black's son
- Terje Roed-Larsen — UN Special Envoy to the Middle East
- Vitaly Churkin — Russian Ambassador to the United Nations
- Kathy Ruemmler — Obama's White House Counsel
A billionaire's heir, two diplomats, and a former senior White House official — gathered in a sex offender's home to watch a movie about a man who murders women. Introduced by a director who married his partner's adopted daughter.
The documents don't record anyone's review of the film.
"Woody Alien Molested His 7 Year Old Daughter"
October 2, 2013. An associate sends Epstein a warning:9
"jeffery all over the post today that woody alien molested his 7 year old daughter. You said you would be safe and get this crap behind you be seen with bill gates or Tony Blair etc you are always making things worse for yourself"
The associate understood the arrangement. Allen was a liability, not an asset. The advice: be seen with Gates or Blair instead. Respectable names. Clean names.
Epstein ignored it. By December, Allen and his family were spending Christmas at Zorro Ranch.
Page Six had already noticed. On September 24, 2013, they ran: "Woody Allen pals around with child sex creep."10 Epstein's staff flagged the article internally. Nothing changed.
What He Promised in Woody's Name
The most damning document in this thread is not a dinner invitation.11
"Epstein told some of the women he could get them into Woody Allen films or secure them a job at the United Nations. He promised others he could help them get modeling gigs at Victoria's Secret. He told the Polish model he could help her get involved at the Gates Foundation."
The same document describes photographs of a Polish model meeting Ehud Barak, Woody Allen, and Bill Gates — all in 2014, all at Epstein-controlled locations.
Woody Allen films. The United Nations. Victoria's Secret. The Gates Foundation. Four lures. Allen's name was the first one out of the gate.
Whether Allen knew his name was being used this way is a question the documents don't answer. What the documents do answer is that he kept showing up — dinner after dinner, flight after flight, ranch visit after ranch visit — while Epstein promised vulnerable women roles in his films.
The Last Messages
The correspondence doesn't cool off. It intensifies.
September 2013. Soon-Yi emails Epstein: "Woody and I would love to see Jeff Koons' studio. Let's all go together." She teases him about leaving his money to breast cancer research. The tone is intimate, familial.12
That same month, Epstein sends Soon-Yi an enigmatic message: "the dogs bark once again." She replies: "I don't understand your email." He clarifies: "this was for woody, his comments regarding the tabloids to me."13
A year earlier, Allen's assistant had asked whether Jeffrey would prefer Mar-a-Lago for the holidays: "Woody & Soon-Yi are wondering how Jeffrey would feel about going to Mar-a-Logo after Christmas instead of his island."14 The Allen family was choosing between a sex offender's private island and a future president's resort. For Christmas.
By 2018, iMessage records extracted from Epstein's phone showed ongoing text conversations with Allen.15 That April, Epstein's daily schedule read: "Reid breakfast tomorrow at 8 am Woody dinner 7." Hoffman and Allen bookending the same day — five months before the Miami Herald's exposé.16
January 2, 2019. Six months before the arrest. Groff was still coordinating: "Dangene, Wolff, Reid and Woody(Soon Yi)... I know you will coordinate Bannon!"
June 30, 2019. Six days before the FBI raided his townhouse. Epstein compiled a "list for bannon steve." One hundred names. Allen was on it — listed as "woody," between "clinton" and "dersh."17
Still bait. Right up to the end.
What He Sent Soon-Yi
October 15, 2017. Harvey Weinstein's career has been in free fall for ten days. The New Yorker has published its exposés. Hollywood is in shock.
Jeffrey Epstein opens his Gmail and sends Soon-Yi Previn a single link:18
"How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate Their Victims in Their Acts"
No comment. No message. Just the URL.
A convicted sex trafficker sends his close friend's wife an article about how powerful men make their victims complicit. Neither of them found this uncomfortable enough to stop attending dinner.
One hundred dinners. Private flights. Ranch holidays. iMessage threads. A chef who sent menus to Soon-Yi for approval. An assistant who coordinated Paris trips. An Apple to-do item asking whether Scarlett Johansson would come.
And behind all of it — the women who were promised roles in Woody Allen films by the man who hosted the dinners.
This article is part of the Epstein & Hollywood research series. Previously: Every Leg of the Flight — Clinton, Spacey, and the Africa Trip. Next: The Red Carpet Fixer — Peggy Siegal and $591,378.
Sources & Documents
- EFTA00421105 — Apple Mail to-do: "Will Scarlett Johansson come w/Woody on Sunday?" January 24, 2012. View →
- EFTA00421236 — Lesley Groff email: "Woody put a call in to Scarlett Johansson." January 23, 2012. View →
- EFTA02316204 — Chef Francis Derby: "proposed menu for Woody Allen dinner tomorrow night. May I send to Soon Yi for approval." View →
- HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030215 — Epstein to Peter Thiel: "any interest in woody allen... evening dinner with woody all casual." September 2014. View →
- EFTA01930082 — Epstein to Hoffman/Ito: "woody allen is currently in san fran... I will fly him back to the ranch." March 2014. View →
- EFTA02100285 — Staff schedule: Gates multi-day visit. "lunch with Gates and Woody Allen." February–March 2013. View →
- EFTA02148052 — Flight logistics: Larry and Lisa Summers on Epstein's jet N909JE with Woody Allen. February 2013. View →
- EFTA02613639 — Summers-Epstein relationship counseling: "Enthusiasm for dinner w woodie." November 2018. View →
- EFTA02575836 — Associate warning: "woody alien molested his 7 year old daughter... be seen with bill gates." October 2, 2013. View →
- Page Six — "Woody Allen pals around with child sex creep." September 24, 2013. Flagged internally (vol00009-efta00382987-pdf). View →
- EFTA00144274 — "Epstein told some of the women he could get them into Woody Allen films." 2014. View →
- EFTA02403927 — Soon-Yi to Epstein: "Woody and I would love to see Jeff Koons' studio." September 2013. View →
- EFTA02575247 — Epstein to Soon-Yi: "the dogs bark once again." September 2013. View →
- EFTA02158406 — Allen's assistant: "Woody & Soon-Yi are wondering how Jeffrey would feel about going to Mar-a-Logo after Christmas instead of his island." September 2012. View →
- EFTA00786633, EFTA01214593 — iMessage records from Epstein device. Conversations with Allen through 2018. View →
- EFTA02478398 — Epstein to staff: "Reid breakfast tomorrow at 8 am Woody dinner 7." April 2018. View →
- HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029622 — "list for bannon steve": "woody" alongside gates, thiel, clinton, prince andrews. June 30, 2019. View →
- EFTA02583155 — Epstein sends Soon-Yi: "How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate Their Victims in Their Acts." October 15, 2017. View →
