Meryl Streep responds to Rose McGowan's attack, says she wasn't deliberately silent
'I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape'
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Your support makes all the difference.Over the weekend, Rose McGowan criticised actresses intending on attending the Golden Globes wearing all black clothing to protest sexual harassment in Hollywood.
“Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black Golden Globes in a silent protest,” she wrote on Twitter.
“YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly and affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.”
The womenswear company Marchesa was co-created by Georgina Chapman, the ex-wife of Harvey Weinstein, while the “Pig Monster” jab would seemingly be an attack on the producer.
Streep has since responded to the Tweet, offering a lengthy statement to HuffingtonPost, saying she wasn’t “deliberately silent” regarding Weinstein.
“It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend,” Streep said, “but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others.
“I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know. I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.”
Streep then spoke about never being invited to Weinstein’s hotel room, like so many other women were, adding how she was unaware of his behaviour.
“Weinstein needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt,” Streep said.
“He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn’t know.”
Streep finished the statement saying McGowan — who has previously been a vocal critic of Streep — had made untrue assumptions but hoped the pair would not be adversaries.
“We are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry.
“That’s where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.”
McGowan alleged back in October that Weinstein had raper her (accusations the disgraced mogul denies). Since she came forward, McGowan has used her platform to share stories by other women, and call out other men accused of sexual harassment and assault.
She has previously called out Streep on Twitter. In response to the esteemed actor’s comments calling Weinstein’s actions “the most gargantuan example of disrespect”, McGowan wrote: “No, Meryl, IT’S A FUCKING CRIME. You are such a lie.”
The Golden Globes take place on the 7 January.
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