I was surprised to read in Liz Smith’s column today that Woody Allen — who just wrapped his latest movie with Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in Manhattan — “will spend the summer in L.A. directing the Puccini opera ‘Gianni Schicchi.’ ” Allen, of course, skewered Los Angeles in “Annie Hall,” where his character quipped: “I don’t want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.” Digging around, I discovered that Allen told AP’s David Germain in an interview last month that he accepted the assignment from the L.A. opera reluctantly: I have no idea how to direct an opera…I like opera, but I’m not a fanatic. I was cajoled and badgered into it.” This isn’t Woody’s first lengthy stay in the City of Angels: he starred opposite Bette Midler in Paul Mazursky’s “Scenes From A Mall,” which was shot there. After the opera debuts in September, the Woodman is likely headed back to Europe, where financing for his films is more available than in New York.