Meryl Streep to Rose McGowan: 'I Did Not Know About Weinstein's Crimes'
Meryl Streep has finally given a response to the tweet from Rose McGowan accusing her of deliberately staying silent about the alleged crimes that disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein had committed.
Actress and activist Rose McGowan, who has been recently named as one of TIME's "persons of the year," criticized Meryl Streep for working with Harvey Weinstein despite him already having a reputation for being a sexual predator. She also criticized Streep and other actresses who were planning a silent protest by wearing black at the upcoming Golden Globe Awards. According to her, their silence is the problem. Now, in a statement to Huffington Post, the Oscar-winning actress finally responded to the accusations thrown at her by McGowan and claims she did not know about the disgraced Hollywood producer's crimes.
"It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, 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," Streep began.
Streep made mention as to how she was unaware that young women were being assaulted and that she doesn't approve of rape. According to the 68-year-old actress, she had never been invited to Harvey Weinstein's hotel room and had only met with the producer once in his office for a meeting with Wes Craven back in 1998.
Furthermore, the actress explained how Weinstein is not a filmmaker but a producer who primarily distributes films and that not everyone who had worked with him was aware of his devious dealings. She also explains that she did not know that Weinstein had purchased the silence of his victims.
"HW 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. He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didn't know," she said.
Streep also revealed that she had given her home number to McGowan through their mutual friends and hoped that the actress would contact her but no such event ever occurred.
"I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe," Streep finally says.
