As a talented writer for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd in the mid-1980s was one of a select group from the New York press and other media with access to Woody Allen. Like other writers and critics in this group, she indicated a decidedly favorable leaning toward Allen, in part because of what she discerned as a new direction in his work concerning women. As mentioned earlier, in a lengthy piece for the Sunday New York Times about Allen's developing attitude toward women as suggested in his new film at the time, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Dowd asks, “Has Woody Allen turned some sort of emotional corner now, writing endings rosy with redemption and happily ever after?”

Much has happened to Dowd and Allen since that article. While Allen's work, career, and life have taken a turn in a direction different from the one Dowd anticipated, her influence has grown as a widely read columnist whose mordant opinion pieces appear regularly on the “op-ed” page of the Times. In her columns, Dowd usually excoriates leading political figures at the helm of the Washington political establishment or punctures the inflated egos of other elites. Given her prominence, Dowd's change in attitude toward Allen seems notable and worth considering as part of an examination of Allen's work and career.