Rose McGowan says she's 'grossed out' by the way the New York Times 'enjoyed being lauded' for Harvey Weinstein scandal reporting
Rose McGowan doesn’t want the media to get all the credit for breaking the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal.
“I’ve been called one of the first to speak out. No. I was the first. I called the New York Times. I blew it wide open, not them,” McGowan told The Guardian in an interview published Monday. “They won the Pulitzer and I’m the one hard-up for money. It’s disgusting. I was kind of grossed out by how much they enjoyed being lauded.”
McGowan was named as one of the actresses who’d reached a previously disclosed settlement with Weinstein in the initial New York Times story accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct in October 2017. The story featured multiple women detailing their experiences with the mogul. While McGowan declined to comment for the story, the newspaper reported that she’d been paid $100,000 settlement following “an episode in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival.” However, the money was “not to be construed as an admission” on Weinstein’s part, according to legal documents obtained by the newspaper.
Three days later, McGowan revealed on social media that she had donated the settlement to a rape crisis center. She also thanked the reporters for their “bravery.”
In April 2018, both the New York Times and the New Yorker were awarded a joint Pulitzer Prize — the most prestigious award in journalism — for their separate reporting on the allegations against Weinstein. Both publications were lauded by judges for their “explosive, impactful journalism that exposed wealthy and powerful sexual predators.”
Around the same time, McGowan was starring in her own five-episode docu-series, Citizen Rose, capturing her activism and the rest of her life following her public accusations against Weinstein. She also published a memoir, Brave, about her experiences in Hollywood in January 2018.
Those initial reports about Weinstein prompted the #MeToo movement, in which scores of women came forward to publicly accuse a number of high-profile men in the entertainment industry of sexual misconduct. More than 90 women spoke out against Weinstein alone, but sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Les Moonves, Bryan Singer, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer and hundreds of other powerful men, too.
Weinstein was forced out of his company immediately. He’s scheduled to face trial on sexual assault charges against two women who are not McGowan in September. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges and has always denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex, included those from McGowan.
“I’m so scared for the women brave enough to testify. I would’ve done so, had so much time not elapsed,” the Scream star said. “I fear for them because they’re going to be savaged by his lawyer. I send them all my strength because they’re going to need it.”
McGowan isn’t acting much these days, and her next project is different than, say, Jawbreaker or Charmed: It’s a music and spoken-word show called “Planet 9.” The official description reads: “Through memoir, music, storytelling, projections and performance Rose creates a new world of possibilities: Planet 9.”
McGowan also told the Guardian that her acting career was “stolen.”
“We all got stolen,” McGowan said of herself, Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd and other actresses whose careers declined after making accusations against Weinstein. “And we were all very good at our jobs. That’s the other crime in all this.”
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