Actress Rose McGowan, after having her Twitter account temporarily suspended by the social-media service following a string of posts alleging cover-ups of Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women, said the movie producer raped her.
“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” according to a statement released earlier by his publicist. “Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
McGowan was identified in a New York Times article last week as receiving a financial settlement from Weinstein over an encounter with the producer at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. She made a series of Twitter posts Thursday directed at Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, saying, “I told the head of your studio that HW raped me.”
“Over & over I said it,” McGowan wrote. “He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was the proof. I had already sold a script I wrote to your studio. It was in development. When I heard a Weinstein bailout was in the works I forcefully begged studio head to do the right thing. I was ignored. Deal was done. Amazon won a dirty Oscar. I called my attorney & said I want to get my script back, but before I could … (Amazon) called to say my show was dead.
@JeffBezos I am calling on you to stop funding rapists, alleged pedos and sexual harassers. I love (Amazon) but there is rot in Hollywood.”
McGowan’s series of posts followed a temporary suspension of her Twitter account. McGowan moved to Instagram to announce that her service had been frozen. A Twitter representative told People magazine McGowan’s account was suspended because one of her posts included a private phone number.
McGowan didn’t specify which film she was referring to with the “dirty Oscar” reference. The Amazon-released “Manchester by the Sea” won two Oscars in January, and “The Salesman” won one. She also did not give details on the script she had sold to Amazon.
–City News Service