Bizarre Epstein files messages with Woody Allen reignite wild ‘Wayfairgate’ conspiracy theory
The wildest conspiracy to emerge from the Jan. 30 Epstein Files data dump involves none other than Woody Allen.
Sure, the Oscar winner-turned-Hollywood pariah is an easy target given that his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow has accused him of molesting her when she was 7 years old. (He has vehemently denied it.) And the set-up for his classic film “Manhattan,” with the mid-life protagonist dating a high school girl, was Epstein-esque. Naturally, cyber sleuths looking to catch a predator in the DOJ cache zeroed in on the mountain of correspondence between the “Annie Hall” director, his wife Soon Yi-Previn and the late financier. There are many threads like when Epstein asks Previn in 2014, “have you found a soon to be corpse for lorinda.” Or the time in 2018 when Allen and Epstein invoked infamous rumored cannibal Idi Amin. “At least I’m thinner,” Allen wrote. “Because you also eat the bones providing fiber,” Epstein responded.
But one extended conversation between the two men beginning in October 2016 caught the eye of people who were working with Allen at the time. It was the year before #MeToo would hit Hollywood and leave Allen’s famed career in ruins. Allen was in production on the Kate Winslet starrer “Wonder Wheel,” his first movie in a four-picture $68 million deal with Amazon.
Conspiracy theorists point to the strange chain of events laid out in the Epstein Files that have sparked people’s memories of Wayfairgate — the Pizzagate-adjacent belief that wealthy sickos order children from the low-cost furniture retailer, typically in the form of large rugs and heavy boxed items. (A Wayfair spokesperson told Newsweek at the time the theory first emerged in 2020: “There is, of course, no truth to these claims.”)
Some who worked with Allen in 2016 have gone full tin-foil hat based on the strangeness of the now-searchable episode. As best as I can piece it together from the files, Epstein was looking to buy Allen a special 81st birthday present and began planning it two months out in September 2015 in a note to himself “strip club, woody film , woody birthday. party reason, heart hard eyes back teeth.” Despite the advance planning, the gift wasn’t much of a surprise.
On Oct. 27, 2016, Allen, who was in production on “Wonder Wheel,” took time away from set to select the gift himself and picked out, of all things, outdoor folding chairs, pasting the Wayfair link to the cheapo item. The order (totaling about $158 per chair) was placed later that day, and Allen received the following message: “Exciting news: Your friend Jeffrey Epstein sent you a gift from Wayfair!” From that point on, a group of at least seven people began obsessing over the shipping details of these low-rent chairs like it was a colonoscopy result.
On Oct. 27, Epstein forwarded the Wayfair email with tracking number to his accountant, Bella Klein. On Oct. 28, Epstein’s assistant wrote him enthusiastically: “So delivery should be on or before Nov. 10th…!” On Nov. 5, she wrote her boss again: “Woody’s chairs are to ship on Nov 9th and he is to receive Nov 10th! He am watching the status! I’ll keep you posted.” On Nov. 7, a person with a redacted name wrote Allen’s assistant Laura Cheung — who’s credited on his films “Wonder Wheel” and “A Rainy Day in New York” — “Do you think someone will be home to receive the chairs? I’m not sure how deliveries work at Woody’s home…”
Epstein’s assistant assured her boss that someone from Allen’s staff will be on hand to accept the delivery. “I spoke with Wayfair (the company we purchased Woody’s chairs from) – they have confirmed Woody should receive the chairs on Thursday Nov. 10th via Fed Ex. I let Lauren, Woody’s assistant know, and she has confirmed either his housekeeper, Gert, or his chef, Richard, will be there to accept them! :)” Simultaneously, Epstein’s assistant kept Allen apprised of the delivery specifications. This all while Allen has moved into post-production on “Wonder Wheel.”
But the delivery date changed, and Epstein’s assistant let her boss know, “I will keep my eye on them.” Epstein then wrote Previn on Nov. 10: “Woody’s Chairs are still at the warehouse!” “I checked on this order and it has NOT left the warehouse as of yet (it was to be delivered today)… Wayfair will be calling me back with an update in 2 hours.”
Mind you, Allen’s birthday is still 20 days away on Nov. 30, which isn’t typically an ideal time for al fresco dining in NYC.
There was more back and forth among the parties, and then Epstein’s assistant wrote Cheung with good news on Nov. 14. “The chairs are to be delivered today! Can you confirm receipt for us…I just want to be able to tell Jeffrey his gift arrived…thanks!” Post-delivery, Epstein’s assistant then asked Cheung a strange question for two people talking about furniture. “How did you do…do you need my help…? I have my head above water now! LMK!”
Alas, Previn didn’t seem happy with the items and wrote Epstein to complain. “Did you tell them 12 chairs as it seems as if they only ordered six. Am I not seeing something?”
So much for the well-planned surprise gift for Allen.
(Despite the implausibility of the notion a whole bunch of staff members spoke in code and enabled child trafficking, the conspiracy has blown up online.)
When the bizarre, unfounded Wayfairgate controversy first emerged as a theory, as later propagated by QAnon adherents, the furniture company noted that the high-priced items buried on its website were merely a glitch, commenting to a BBC News “specialist disinformation reporter” for a 2020 piece called, “Wayfair: The false conspiracy about a furniture firm and child trafficking,” “We have temporarily removed the products from our site to rename them and to provide a more in-depth description and photos that accurately depict the product to clarify the price point.”
There are unfortunately still such price glitches on the site six years later, like this item, being sold for $84,999. The price of this 9-by-12-foot rug, which looks like it was photographed in someone’s basement, has come down from its original $100,000 during the reporting of this piece. There’s also this “bone line” wardrobe made of “solid wood” for nearly $25K.
Polaris, the non-profit that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline, even previously addressed the hysteria, stating in 2020 that the “extreme volume” of calls about the false Wayfair rumors “made it more difficult for the Trafficking Hotline to provide support and attention to others who are in need of help,” and, “What we can say is that none of the reports we have received involving Wayfair contained any information beyond what has been widely shared online. Nor have any of these reports been made by someone who has a specific connection to any alleged missing children.”
Epstein ordered a lot of items from Wayfair. The billionaire with the private jet bought rugs and sinks from the retailer that is typically the next step up in home décor after dorm room chic. The items were delivered to his Upper East Side mansion and his Caribbean island. In fact, there are hundreds of Wayfair hits in the Epstein files — and the number is fueling the unfounded conspiracy.
One person who worked with Allen at the time says the idea of a director in the middle of a high-stakes production being kept abreast of the status of a personal delivery — even an expensive one — is difficult to fathom. Says the source: “This is all simply inexplicable.”
