Actress and activist Rose McGowan is calling out disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein after he denied her accusations that he sexually assault her.
After Weinstein called McGowan’s accusations “a bold lie” in a Tuesday statement, the actress said Wednesday, through her rep Adam Kersh, that it “unequivocally proves a continued attempt to malign, smear and ‘slut shame’” her.
“Yesterday’s statement from Mr. Weinstein and his attorney Ben Brafman unequivocally proves a continued attempt to malign, smear and ‘slut shame’ Rose McGowan,” the statement read. “It is an affront not only to Rose but to the hundreds of women who have come forward with their stories of harassment, sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by Mr. Weinstein and those like him.”
Since his initial response to the New York Times report in October that outlined decades worth of harassment and assault claims made against him, his studio, The Weinstein Company, forced him out and went on a search for a new owner. On Tuesday, Weinstein released a statement through his lawyer specifically refuting McGowan’s account of his alleged abuse of her during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, which she described in her new memoir, “Brave.”
Weinstein’s statement said that McGowan was making a “bold lie” and cited emails allegedly sent to Weinstein last year from Ben Affleck — whom McGowan said she told about the assault years ago — and McGowan’s then-manager Jill Messick, who Weinstein said refuted McGowan’s account.
Reps for Affleck told TheWrap that the actor had no comment about Weinstein’s statement at this time, and Messick has not responded to TheWrap’s requests for comment.
In the hours following Weinstein’s statement, McGowan responded with a profanity-filled post on Twitter: “F– you you f–ing douche bag loser from hell,”McGowan tweeted Tuesday night. “You will burn. You will be an empty suit coffin. You go fall off the planet you f–.”
Read McGowan’s entire statement from Wednesday:
Yesterday’s statement from Mr. Weinstein and his attorney Ben Brafman unequivocally proves a continued attempt to malign, smear and “slut shame” Rose McGowan. It is an affront not only to Rose but to the hundreds of women who have come forward with their stories of harassment, sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by Mr. Weinstein and those like him. This is a sad, pathetic old-fashioned sexist attempt to undermine obvious truth and the gaslighting will no longer be tolerated. The “performance” is him and his complicity machine, and they are bad actors.
Mr. Weinstein has used his power to violate Rose in all too many ways, even resorting to proven espionage tactics in attempt to cover up his crimes. The statement released yesterday by the retrograde lawyer also clearly proves Mr. Weinstein was on a fishing expedition to target and coerce potential witnesses three months prior to when the first allegations of rape surfaced in the media. Furthermore, the email “evidence” presented from Ben Affleck and Rose’s former manager, Jill Messick, dated from July of last year has already been disproven — by Affleck himself on the Today Show in a statement of support for Rose (“I believe Rose, I support her”) in November of 2017 and by Ms. Messicks’ then-assistant Anne Woodward as reported in the New York Times last October. These crimes have also been investigated thoroughly by the paper of record, the New York Times, as well as the New Yorker’s incredibly detailed coverage by Ronan Farrow.
Mr. Weinstein’s attempts to discredit Rose is part of his 20 year long campaign to silence her, clearly proving he IS the monster so many women have described him to be.
Like so many other #MeToo’s, Rose will continue to push back at ingrained thought and a corrupt power structure. She will not be commenting further. The truth can be found in her work: BRAVE the book, it can be found in the rawness of Citizen Rose and in the music, lyrics and emotion of Planet 9. It is time true voices were heard and it is time for the lies to stop.