ABC/Pawel Kaminski(NEW YORK) — Rose McGowan has been a central figure when it comes to raising awareness about sexual harassment and sexual assault in Hollywood. The former actress sat down for an extensive interview on Nightline Tuesday about her new book Brave and what she says Harvey Weinstein did to her.
McGowan claims others were aware of Weinstein’s alleged exploits.
“This is an international rapist, OK? This is the truth of what it is. This is an international rape factory. Every single place he ever stayed, there were people there set up to help him rape,” McGowan said. “This is how it went. This is what it was. People, women, girls would be said, ‘Oh, you have a meeting,’ or, ‘Come to a party.’”
“They would show up, and that party is just him. Who got them there? Who were the assistants?” continued McGowan.
McGowan alleges that there was machinery in place that enabled Weinstein.
“He is a sociopathic predator. He thinks he’s done nothing wrong,” McGowan said. “I wish just one person would’ve stood up and said, ‘No more,’ because so many people had so many chances to put a stop to this.”
In Brave, McGowan goes after the Hollywood establishment and tells the story of the day she says Weinstein raped her.
McGowan says that she met Weinstein for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1997. She says someone from her management team set up the meeting at the restaurant at Weinstein’s hotel, the Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley, in Park City, Utah. McGowan said Weinstein moved the meeting to his palatial suite.
The meeting went well; but, as she walked towards the door to leave, McGowan says, things took a turn.
In her book, McGowan wrote that Weinstein pushed her into the suite’s Jacuzzi and undressed her.
McGowan says Weinstein picked her up and placed her on the edge of the Jacuzzi. Then, she said, he began to perform forced oral sex on her.
In a statement to ABC News, Ben Brafman, an attorney for Weinstein said: “Mr. Weinstein denies Rose McGowan’s allegations of non-consensual sexual contact and it is erroneous and irresponsible to conflate claims of inappropriate behavior and consensual sexual contact later regretted, with an untrue claim of rape.”
McGowan said she met with a female criminal attorney about pressing charges, but was talked out of it.
“She told me, ‘You’re an actress. You did a sex scene. You’re done. You’ll never win,’ and she was right. She’s not wrong,” McGowan said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to have to seek justice in a different way.’”
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