Meryl Streep responded to Rose McGowan’s criticism after the “Charmed” star criticized her for participating in a silent protest planned at the Golden Globes against sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood.
“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 [Harvey] Weinstein’s crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others,” Streep shared in a lengthy statement on Deadline Monday. (RELATED: Rose McGowan Slams Meryl Streep For Silent Protest Planned For Golden Globes)
Actress Meryl Streep, recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, poses in the press room during the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“I wasn’t deliberately silent. I didn’t know. I don’t tacitly approve of rape. I didn’t know,” Streep added. “I don’t like young women being assaulted. I didn’t know this was happening.”
“HW [Weinstein] was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people — some of them great, some not great,” she continued. “But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us.”
“Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth,” Streep explained. “Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines.”
“And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not, but I hope she reads this,” she added. “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: 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,” she added. “That’s where the cover-ups convene.”
“Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest,” McGowan tweeted Saturday in reference to Harvey Weinstein, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) December 16, 2017
“YOUR SILENCE is THE problem,” she added. “You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.” The Marchesa comment was a reference to the fashion line designed by Weinstein’s estranged wife Georgina Chapman.