Taboo and celebrity: a cross-linguistic case study on Woody Allen and incest

This paper aims to critically analyse a case study of celebrity news involving a taboo topic. In a larger media discourse analysis of the incest taboo, Woody Allen’s name was the only celebrity’s name repeatedly mentioned in the French and British press between 2017 and 2022, as his seven-year-old adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, accused him of incestuous sexual abuse back in 1992. Informed on critical discourse analysis, this paper cross-linguistically investigates how the media frames a highly taboo topic when a celebrity is involved. The notions of celebrity news, rogue celebrity, tabloidisation, and sensationalism are addressed. The French and British press display ambiguous coverage, being vague about the accusations while relishing their taboo nature, probably due to the involvement of a celebrity. Furthermore, the mixing of facts and fiction, characteristic of celebrity news, tends to distance the seriousness of the accusations. The media’s focus on either the accused or the accuser is not based on facts, but shifts according to trendy perceptions, embodied by other celebrities. Finally, the impact of the accusations in celebrity news is discussed, as the media seems to cover incest accusations for their sensationalism rather than promote an open debate on incest as child sexual abuse for society as a whole.