Woody Allen feels "sad" for Harvey Weinstein after he was accused of sexually assaulting a number of women over a period of three years

He said: "The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved. Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up. There's no winners in that, it's just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."

And the 'Blue Jasmine' director - who himself had been alleged to have sexually assaulted Dylan Farrow, the daughter he adopted with actress Mia Farrow, which is something he has always strenuously denied - says he was completely unaware of anything going on with Harvey at the time.

He added: "No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness. And they wouldn't, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie. But you do hear a million fanciful rumours all the time. And some turn out to be true and some - many - are just stories about this actress, or that actor."

Woody hopes the whole situation will improve things for the industry and those who work in it in the future.

He told the BBC: "[I hope there's] some amelioration. You also don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That's not right either. But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation."