Rose McGowan has responded to Harvey Weinstein’s denial that he raped the actress at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
The disgraced producer issued a statement through his attorney on Tuesday, describing their encounter as consensual.
A statement obtained by Variety from McGowan’s publicist said, “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.
McGowan began a book tour Tuesday for “Brave,” her memoir where she describes meeting Weinstein at his hotel suite in Park City, Utah during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. At the end of the meeting, she turned to go, but she says Weinstein forced her to the suite’s hot tub and undressed her. She alleges that he put her on the edge of the hot tub, and then performed forcible oral sex on her.
She appeared on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday and will appear on “Nightline” on Wednesday, where she will further discuss her allegations and experience with the #MeToo movement.
In Weinstein’s statement denying McGowan’s claims against him, he called her book tour “a performance” and claimed he had emailed statements from Ben Affleck and Jill Messick saying that McGowan described the hot tub encounter to them as consensual. In her book, McGowan says she immediately told Affleck what happened when she saw him at a photo op, as they were working together at the time.
McGowan’s response addressed these claims, saying, “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,” the statement added.
In addition to “Brave,” McGowan has also launched E! docuseries “Citizen Rose” about the alleged assault and her activism for assault survivors.
Read McGowan’s statement in full below.
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.
